Australasia’s largest medical recruitment company, MedWorld, in association with MedRecruit, has joined forces with the
Ministry of Health to launch a campaign to help find the workforce needed to fight the impending Covid-19 pandemic.
“Make no mistake, we are facing the biggest crisis of our time and the demand for trained doctors and nurses will be
unprecedented” says MedWorld Founder and Managing Director Dr Sam Hazledine. “We need all willing and available
qualified health professionals to step out of retirement, semi-retirement or extended leave and make themselves
available to assist where needed”.
Dr Hazledine says the search is on for extra doctors and nurses to fill staffing gaps in the new coronavirus fever
clinics now opening in cities and regions nationwide, as well as back-filling vacant roles in the nation’s hospitals to
ensure non-coronavirus healthcare demand is equally and appropriately met.
“How many more doctors and nurses do we need? More, as many as we can find and fast” says Dr Hazledine. “We are
currently experiencing ‘calm before the storm’. It’s vital we build our staffing capacity before we actually need it,
not once it’s too late as we’re seeing in countries like Italy. The coming months are going to be extremely challenging
and demanding on our already under-staffed and pressured health system, especially with normal winter illness and its
flow-on demand to come. We need to be ready for an emergency situation and build the army before we go into battle, not
once the attack is upon us”.
Dr Hazledine says MedWorld reached out to the government and Ministry of Health to offer assistance with the anticipated
staffing crisis. He says a plan was quickly crafted and agreed upon to enlist MedWorld’s help to mobilise the workforce.
“This is the time for entrepreneurial companies such as ours to step up in a public service sense to provide any
assistance we can” says Hazledine. “The government and health ministry are doing an excellent job in an extremely
challenging situation but need extra support from companies like ours which have the infrastructure and experience to
make a difference”.
MedWorld was established by Dr Hazledine in 2015 to raise awareness of and support doctor wellbeing. It is a sister
company to MedRecruit, launched 14 years ago to specifically handle doctor recruitment. Queenstown-based, the company is
now the largest doctor recruitment company in Australasia with supporting offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney and the
Gold Coast, with a staff of over 100. Dr Hazledine is an internationally acknowledged leader and author in the field of
doctor health and well-being. He was responsible for successfully lobbying the World Medical Association three years ago
to alter and amend the Declaration of Geneva (the modern-day Hippocratic Oath) to now give doctors worldwide permission
to focus on their own health and well-being alongside that of their patients.
Qualified doctors and nurses interested in answering the recruitment call are encouraged to go to the MedWorld website, www.medworld.com to register. MedWorld will guide prospective doctor and nurse recruits through the next stages of the process.
MedRecruit will handle all doctor applicants, with a partner nursing recruitment company assisting with nursing
applications. If already registered, applicants will be mobilised by MedRecruit; doctors and nurses who are not
currently registered will be directed through a Ministry of Health portal which was created to help fast-track the
re-registration process with assistance from the Medical Council of New Zealand and the Nursing Council of New Zealand.
Dr Hazledine says although the process will be fast and efficient, due care will still be taken to ensure all
qualifications, CVs and references are appropriately checked and that all those recruited are fit-for-purpose and
work-ready.
MedRecruit will increase its own staffing capacity seven days a week to handle an anticipated increase in enquiries from
doctors and nurses wishing to step up.
“This is the challenge our generation has been handed” says Dr Hazledine. “It’s our job to rise to that challenge in
these unprecedented times for medicine. We need to rally, act and be better together”.