Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove has paid tribute to Australia health workers in the UK.
While in London last week for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, Sir Peter and his wife Lynne visited the Emergency Operations Centre of the London Ambulance Service.
Aussie paramedics, who had relocated from Australia to work in London as part of an ongoing National Health Service (NHS) recruitment drive Down Under, showed the GG around the site.
Sir Peter praised the Aussie paramedics’ “significant contribution” to the capital.
However, according to News.com.au, unions back home are up in arms at what some consider ‘poaching’ of young Aussie talent while others say the state governments need to do better at generating job opportunities for new graduates.
It adds up to a sub-par ambulance services in Australia, they say.
“When some of our best and brightest see better opportunities elsewhere, it puts an extra drain on our services,” Secretary of the Health Services Union NSW, Gerard Hayes, said.
“We are proud of them as well, but we would rather be proud of them working in Australia,” Australian Paramedics Association NSW president Stephen Pearce said, according to News.com.au.
“We are proud of them as well, but we would rather be proud of them working in Australia.”
Britain’s NHS is constantly seeking to fill gaps in its services with highly skilled workers from overseas. Good pay and benefits packages are offered.
In the past two years there have been several recruitment drives in Australia by the NHS targeting paramedics. By this August, around 500 Aussie paramedics will have taken up the offer to work in the UK.