International recruitment drive for Canberra Hospital expansion

Construction is underway on the delayed $600 million expansion of Canberra Hospital, which will significantly increase the capacity of the hospital. The intensive care unit will double from 30 beds to 60 and emergency department treatment spaces will also increase from 72 to 147.

But in order to have enough staff for day one work to recruit staff has already started, Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer said.

He said Canberra Health Services would seek local, national and international staff.

"While the cranes are a physical example of the work that's taking place, there's also plenty that is going on behind the scenes," Mr Peffer said.

"Preparing for the opening of a state-of-the-art facility like this is just one piece of the puzzle, it also needs to be filled with a highly skilled and high calibre team to deliver the care to our local community.

"Part of preparing for the critical services building is to recruit more team members and we know the best way to create a great health service for our community is to have great team members.

"That campaign won't just be a local campaign and it won't even be a national campaign, it will be international for some of those specialities to really make sure that we're getting great talent brought into the territory."

Mr Peffer said they did not yet know how many extra staff they would need as it was being determined in workforce planning that was underway.

He made the comments at an event to mark the installation of the first crane at the critical services building, there will also be another crane installed next month.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the crane symbolised the "massive effort" to bring the hospital expansion to life.

"I'm very, very happy to be here celebrating this milestone. The critical services building will be a cornerstone of Canberra's health service and something that will really shape the future of Canberra Hospital," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

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The government is also running a vote to "name the cranes" on the delayed project, which was originally promised to be completed in 2022.

Students from Garran Primary School have shortlisted 10 names and the public can vote on the name later this month.

ACT opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley said the announcement from the government showed it was more focused on stunts than on fixing the health system.

"Canberra's nurses and doctors are doing the best they can but the government has run down our health system and Canberrans are suffering because of it," Ms Castley said.

"The Labor-Greens government insults Canberrans with its gimmicks while Canberrans languish on waiting lists and plead for better health care."

The Canberra Hospital expansion was an election commitment from Labor in 2016. At the time it was supposed to be completed by 2022 but it has been plagued by delays and will now open in 2024.

A master plan for the wider hospital campus was only unveiled in December, the previous lack of a master plan has been blamed for years of delays to the Canberra Hospital expansion.

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