Communities are struggling with shortages of health professionals and the problem is likely to get worse before it gets better, Balclutha GP Branko Sijnja says.
The Otago and Southland District Health Boards are planning workshops for Dunedin, Central Otago and Invercargill to discuss workforce issues with local authorities and other organisations within communities.
Speaking at the Community and Public Health Advisory Committee meeting in Invercargill this week, member Dr Sijnja said it was important to talk to local authorities to see what they could do to help with recruitment.
Potential new recruits often wanted to know about job opportunities for spouses and if there would be a good school for their children.
Communities which worked together to address workforce shortages might be able to come up with solutions for their area, he said.
Dr Sijnja said while it was good the problem was being addressed nationally, working with communities from "the bottom up" was as valuable as what was happening from "the top down".
Chairman Errol Millar said if organisations worked together it could mean they were not all going to the United Kingdom on recruitment drives, but could maybe "tag along" with one another.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau said regions, and even organisations within regions, were all competing for the same recruits and might not be willing to share their recruitment ideas.
At the boards' disability support advisory committee meeting, which also discussed the workshops, Mr Rousseau said it was important the meetings did not raise unrealistic expectations and that work did not proceed in the opposite direction from national strategies.
The Ministry of Health had indicated it would be taking a much more significant role over workforce development, something he saw as a positive step.
However, this had not yet been definedFinding solutions to workforce issues nationally would take five to 10 years and he did not see specific solutions being possible outside a national strategy.
Committee member Louise Carr said the workshops would provide a good opportunity to those throughout the health sector to look more holistically at the difficulties and see how they could work together better now and in future.
