As residents of Alice Springs deal with the ongoing crime wave that has been grabbing headlines across the country another crisis is beginning this time in the healthcare sector.
Currently healthcare providers in the region are dealing with staffing shortages which has been linked to the recent rise in alcohol-fuelled violence, leaving current practitioners burnt out and new workers afraid to start their shifts.
Two Aboriginal health clinics have had to shut their doors due to the shortages, another link in the chain that finds empty consulting rooms riddling the country town.
NT branch secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Cath Hatcher said that the hospital is currently operating with half the number of nurses as usual, with half of the 22 new graduates who joined the hospital pulling out due to being “frightened by the level of violence they have seen on the media.”
NT health has said that a domestic and international recruitment drive is now underway to fill the gaps in staffing.
