Canberra health authorities look to recruit new staff as mass vaccination clinic's future considered

The role of ACT government-led mass vaccination hubs is also under review as staff are needed in acute services.

There are also pressures on elective surgery, as authorities are still attempting to catch up on surgeries that were missed due to the COVID-induced lockdowns.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said there would be recruitment right across Canberra's health services over the coming months but even that could prove difficult as there was a shortage of nursing staff across the country.

However, she said recruitment would receive a boost in coming months as overseas workers were now allowed to come to Australia.

"From a junior medical officer perspective, the good news is that we're going to start to see overseas junior medical officers coming back into Australia starting in the middle of this year," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"From a nursing perspective, we know that across the country ever health system is calling out for nurses and midwives and so we're doing a combination of recruitment of experienced staff but also bringing on more graduates and training them up."

In an attempt to deal with the demand, hours have been cut at some health services, including the Australian Institute of Sport's mass vaccination clinic, so staff can be redeployed to other parts of the system.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the government was monitoring demand at the vaccine clinic and there were considerations about stopping the ACT government's involvement in the rollout.

"As we look at what's happening as we go into winter we do want to normalise COVID-19 vaccination in the primary care sector as much as possible, particularly now that we've got through that really big group of 5- to 11-year-olds who needed their vaccination," she said.

"But now that we've got through that big bulk of vaccinations and booster shots I think it is time for us to reconsider the ACT government's role in COVID-19 vaccination."

A "perfect storm" has descended upon Canberra's already overwhelmed health care system in recent weeks as staffing shortages have been exacerbated and patients are presenting to hospitals who are much sicker.

COVID hospitalisations have spiked in recent days and there has also been a range of other respiratory illnesses spreading in the community.

There were 1149 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the ACT in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday. There were 69 people in hospital, including three people in intensive care.

There were 180 rostered staff who had to take personal or sick leave on Wednesday, mainly due to COVID-related reasons.

Ms Stephen-Smith said they were only able to replace about one-quarter of those staff with agency and casual staff. She said walk-in centres were also struggling with the demand.

There are no plans at the moment to put elective surgery on hold but the extra demand meant Canberra Health Services was struggling to catch up on surgeries that had been missed over lockdown.

"We really don't want to place elective surgery on hold unless we have to," she said.

"But the pressure we're seeing at the moment is really meaning that we're not able to put in that additional effort to elective surgery to catch up.

"For some people, unfortunately, the emergency surgery is crowding out some elective surgery and some people do have to be postponed."

Ms Stephen-Smith made the comments at the opening of the ACT government's new health centre in the Molonglo Valley.

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The centre, which is co-located at the Molonglo Valley Medical Centre, will provide free pregnancy care, maternal and child health, women's health counselling and children's asthma care appointments.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the government chose to provide these services first as that was the feedback from the Molonglo Valley community.

"There are a lot of growing families in the Molonglo region so we're going to start this service with pregnancy care and support with maternal and child health services," she said.

"We will continue to talk to the Molonglo Valley community about what else they want to see of Canberra Health Services here in the Molonglo Valley."

The facility is different to the ACT's already existing nurse-led walk-in centres. Health services at the Molonglo facility are by appointment only.

It was part of a 2020 election promise by ACT Labor, which has also pledged to build an additional four centres centres over the coming years.

The Molonglo Valley Medical Centre was previously operated by the National Health Co-operative, which entered into voluntary administration last year.

The ACT government was in discussions with the National Health Co-op for the co-located health centre before its closure but was able to secure an agreement with the centre's new operators, Palm Healthcare.

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