Today I can announce the Hodgman Liberal Government has finalised negotiations with our doctors as part of the Salaried Medical Practitioners Agreement.
Under the Agreement, doctors will receive a 2 per cent pay increase per annum effective from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2019, which is in line with our wages policy.
It follows on with our successful negotiations with our nurses, paramedics and other health professionals over the past three years.
While we have been successful in recruiting, it is no secret that the North West has always struggled to attract health specialists.
In a move to further address this, the Hodgman Government has also negotiated the provision of a new recruitment and retention allowance of 25 per cent for a two-year trial period for specialists that will be located in the North West region.
The fixed-term trial is aimed specifically at testing the effectiveness of such an allowance in meeting the health needs of the North West by attracting and retaining specialists to the region, as well as helping to decrease the overall health costs by reducing the use of locums.
To increase our ability to both recruit and retain our medical workforce in the North West, the allowance would be offered to both new and existing medical specialists.