There are fears a severe shortage of nurses and doctors in Alice Springs could see life expectancy rates worsen among local Aboriginal communities.
It comes amid claims the NT public health system is "poaching" nurses from Aboriginal-controlled health clinics, offering locum nurses up to $500,000 a year to fill remote vacancies.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles this week confirmed there was a shortfall of more than 140 full-time equivalent nurses and midwives across Central Australia.
Just weeks ago, peak bodies revealed that Alice Springs was down to a third of GP numbers required to service the community, with stark shortages also among allied health staff.
John Boffa, chief medical officer at Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, said the crisis could have serious ramifications, if it was not swiftly addressed.
"If nothing changes, some of the life expectancy gains — which have been hard-fought and hard-won in Aboriginal health in Central Australia — will go backwards," Dr Boffa said.
Since 1998, life expectancy has increased by more than 10 years for Aboriginal men, and five years for Aboriginal women.
But Dr Boffa said all that progress could unravel.
"If we can't get the workforce ... then we will see improvements … being reversed," he said.
"That's unacceptable for a country as wealthy as Australia."
Aboriginal health clinics struggle
The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress is currently down a third of its GP and nursing workforce, with a vacancy rate of 50 per cent among Aboriginal health practitioners and allied health staff.
It is understood nurses from Aboriginal-controlled health clinics are being offered up to $500,000 a year by the NT public health system to fill remote locum vacancies.
"And these are not even highly skilled remote nurses that are being employed," Dr Boffa said.
"So the system's almost pricing itself out of the market, and health services are not funded to levels where they can offer these sorts of wages and salaries to attract people."
In an unprecedented step, the congress was recently forced to temporarily close one of its Alice Springs clinics.
And there are concerns more clinics could follow.
Dr Boffa said staff shortages had forced the congress to transform into an "urgent care system", addressing only the most crucial health needs.
"It's not going to help us get on top of the chronic disease epidemic, which is the root cause of premature death amongst Aboriginal communities in Central Australia," he said.
Crime, COVID effect staffing
Dr Boffa said he had not seen the local primary healthcare sector in such dire straits since the mid-90s.
There are concerns recent frenzied national reporting around crime has driven away potential workers and that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the staff shortages by burning out an already over-worked sector.
There are also claims a recent policy change — allowing overseas doctors to work outside "areas of need" in rural and remote areas — is causing serious damage.
"They're now able to go and work in the outer suburbs of the capital cities and in the larger regional cities," Dr Boffa said.
"But those areas don't have the workforce crisis and lack of GPs to anywhere near the same extent as we have."
Nursing crisis continues
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT secretary Cath Hatcher said the local hospital was currently down to just 50 per cent of its nursing and midwifery staff.
This is compared to a workforce shortage of only five per cent prior to the pandemic.
The union is currently negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement with the NT government, but warned if nothing changed, more nurses would flee the territory for states offering better incentives.
"They're exhausted and they just don't want to continue," Ms Hatcher said.
The chief minister has questioned the union's numbers, arguing the hospital is only down about 15 per cent of full-time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff.
"I'm not trying to downplay that," Ms Fyles said.
"There's a number of measures in place not only to recruit but also to support and retain the staff we have."
Responding to claims NT Health was "poaching" nursing staff from Aboriginal medical organisations, she said the government saw these services as "partners, not competition".
Independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley said the situation was dire, and argued the NT government should have acted sooner.
"Unfortunately, our reputation has been shot due to the negligence of this government when it comes to maintaining law and order," she said.
"So we are not an attractive prospect when it comes to people with health qualifications coming here and working for us."
Ms Hatcher said she "honestly didn't know" if the region's nursing crisis could be turned around.
"I think it's going to take a good five-plus years to get to where they were pre-COVID," she said.
