DOCTORS, NURSES WAITING FOR VISAS

Photo courtesy Greg Knobloch.

GEOFF VIVIAN

New figures show almost 3000 nurses and more than 300 overseas doctors have been waiting for visas so they can work in Australia.

Pultukurnu Aboriginal Medical service CEO Robbie Chibawe said he would welcome any attempt to speed up the approvals as he expected many of his clinical staff to start retiring soon.

“For any regional area we really need a lot of staff, going forward,” he said. “I think it will begin to be a little bit dire in the few months or years to come until we really catch up.”