NSW Health workers will be offered incentives of up to $10,000 to relocate or stay in regional and rural areas.
It’s part of an $883 million regional health workforce scheme unveiled by the state government as part of next week's state budget.
Under the scheme there will also be additional leave, reimbursement for relocating, and money for professional development and study assistance.
There will also be more and more training positions for nursing graduates and interns and an expansion in the number of Aboriginal nurse cadetships.
Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor acknowledged the announcement was in part due to findings handed down last month as part of a regional healthcare inquiry.
"The inquiry has highlighted a lot of issues that perhaps our people on the ground knew [were] brought to a head by the pandemic," Ms Taylor said.
A number of witnesses and submissions urged the state government to recruit more nurse practitioners to provide a high level of clinical skill in situations where a doctor is not physically present.
The inquiry has also been told more Aboriginal healthcare staff need to be recruited.
The announcement forms part of the state government's $4.5 billion commitment to bring 10,000 additional staff into the healthcare sector.
Mixed reaction to scheme
There are concerns that providing more incentives will not work.
Several witnesses told the NSW parliamentary inquiry into regional, rural and remote healthcare that offering more money to doctors and nurses was not enough to get them to stay in certain communities.
The charity, Rural and Remote Medical Services, helps to recruit doctors to towns struggling to attract clinicians.
Chief executive Mark Burdack said incentives had been offered for years.
"We've still lost 600 of those 800 rural generalists in rural and remote NSW," Mr Burdack said.
"So I'm a little sceptical that incentives have any real value.
Mr Burdack said the NSW government's recent commitments to improve rural healthcare failed to address a key issue.
"The poor treatment within the hospital system and the culture of the hospital system that makes it really unattractive to work in some places," he said.
"Unless we start addressing what the real problems are, I think it's a lot more about the context we're placing people into."
Coffs Harbour palliative care specialist Daniel Curley said time would be needed to tell whether or not the incentives would work.
Dr Curley said improving training and development programs would be another strong incentive for regional health.
"The other side of retention and recruitment is education and training programs," he said.
"If people feel valued in terms of their training, education and professional development, they're more likely to stay."
Dr Curley expected a mixture of experienced practitioners and fresh graduates would take up the scheme.
He said selling the regional lifestyle more strongly was another avenue to boost workforce numbers.
"I never looked back when I came here," he said.
