Western Australia’s healthcare system is in the grips of a severe nursing shortage, putting immense strain on hospitals.

This shortage is especially acute in rural areas, where there are fewer healthcare facilities and a smaller pool of healthcare workers to draw on.

This is resulting in longer wait times, career burnout for nurses due to increasing workloads, and staffing shortages that can and have impacted patient care.

Failed recruitment efforts by the WA Labor Government, means hospitals across the state continue to struggle with low staffing levels.

Recent data has revealed WA has the lowest ratio of nurses to the population of all states in the nation. We need to recruit more than 2,200 nurses to reach the national average.

While WA Labor’s recruitment rate for nurses was the lowest in the nation, its recruitment of bureaucrats to the health system was the highest.  Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, some 2,000 new government bureaucrats were added to the health sector payroll.

With an aging population, higher rates of chronic illness, and growing challenges across our health system, supporting healthcare workers has never been more critical.

The WA Liberals know that a well-supported nursing workforce is essential for delivering quality healthcare, staff well-being, and overall retention rates.

Without immediate action, WA’s healthcare crisis will continue to worsen, leaving more patients vulnerable and staff overwhelmed.

Nurses are the backbone of our health system, and ensuring their wellbeing will improve patient outcomes, reduce burnout, and create a more resilient healthcare system.

Only a WA Liberal Government will prioritise our nurses.

The WA Liberals believe only through targeted, meaningful, and commonsense action we can overcome the current crisis in our health system.

WA Labor made the decision not to support WA’s current nursing workforce and education system to retain and grow our nursing pool but instead opted for extravagant recruitment campaigns in foreign countries, with minimal success.

Our nurses need more support and the certainty that there is a cohort of new nurses in the pipeline to ensure the future viability of the sector.

Only structural reform and a more holistic approach to addressing the workforce needs will achieve these goals.

A WA Liberal Government will create the Pathways to Patients Program and partner with the university sector to deliver a $20,000 payment to 2,000 graduates who undertake and complete a nursing degree.

Students will receive $12,500 during their course of study and $7,500 upon completion of two years of work in WA’s public health system.

This initiative will incentivise more Western Australians to enter the nursing profession and help build a sustainable homegrown workforce for the future.

By supporting the recruitment of more nurses and retention rates for existing nurses, we can address the workload issues facing the current pool of nurses.

Both Western Australians accessing our health system and those working in that system deserve a government that values and supports our healthcare professionals.

Only the WA Liberal Party is committed to common-sense policies to address the crisis in our health system and deliver the best outcomes for patients and the health workforce alike.