Could hiring freezes in hospitals across the ditch be the answer to our workforce shortage?

Late last month, Australian media reported several Victorian hospitals had announced temporary freezes as they grappled with budget pressures.

Health Minister Shane Reti says he's hoping we can take advantage and attract some workers here.

"I think particularly those New Zealand graduates who may have made their way to Australia, how we figure out how we might be able to entice them back is interesting to me.

"We are aware of their challenges and I've given some encouragement to our team to see how we might bring back some of the skills."

But there are concerns it won't be so straight-forward.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Sarah Dalton says we should be doing everything we can to bring people back and to bring people into New Zealand.

"But our work will be cut out bringing people back from Australia, their terms and conditions are far above anything we offer."

Labour's Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says we're not in a position to capitalise on any opportunities in the global market at the moment.

"There is a hiring freeze on back office staff, and the Government denies there's a hiring freeze on clinical staff and yet I receive endless correspondence from nurses, from medical specialists, saying they cannot fill vacancies.

"So I believe the settings are highly restrictive and we're not in a position to take advantage of more workers - workers that we desperately need."

The Nurses Organisation says it would welcome any changes that would bring New Zealand domestic nurses back to our shores.

CEO Paul Goulter says if we can put together a package that could get them back, that's a good idea and they would look forward to working with the Minister on it.

He says one of the things which has led to the nursing crisis we've got is that we've been unable to provide good jobs.

"That's not just money, but also the conditions and respect for their professionalism. We consistently over the years, haven't been able to do that, there's been a lot of noise about it but the lived reality of nurses is that's not the case.

"So part of the promise in bringing them back to this country has to be giving them good jobs - and it's in that area I think we need to do some serious work with the Minister and Health New Zealand.

This comes ahead of a new workforce plan for the health sector, which Reti says will be released in the next month or so.

He says they want to focus on retention of the workers already here, our domestic pipeline and our international pipeline, which Reti says is wider than just Australia.

"Wherever we have willing and able [people with] skills that we need, who might want to come and live and work in New Zealand, that's where we'll reach too."

He says there's a range of jobs that need filling, including maternity, mental health and critical care nurses as well as junior doctors, specialists, and allied health workers.

Goulter says they've been consulted on plan - and he says for them there's a dominant theme.

"First of all we've got to attract more nurses into education and training, we have to keep them in education and training, and then we have to give them good jobs afterwards."

He says it's simple, but successive governments have failed to do it, and we need to have another crack at getting it right this time.

Dalton says they've also had some limited engagement on the plan, and they're hoping there's something for senior doctors this time.

"We have been given a clear message that our hopes need to be limited, that there are budget constraints in what is likely to be in that plan.

"I think we need a complete step change and a completely different approach to how we staff our health system.

"Stop pretending it's a cost and remember it's a massive and crucial investment - there are so many services that are currently close to collapse, we can't afford to pretend that healthcare is a budget line business, it's not, it's a public good and we need to properly invest in it."

Verrall says it's important this Government continues to publish an annual workforce plan, and it's important it includes estimates of current number and current gaps, and projected gaps.

"Unless we have that information we can't plan our workforce for the future."

Danica MacLean is an Auckland-based News Director and Senior Reporter for Newstalk ZB, with a focus on health stories. She joined NZME in 2017, initially working for the Northern Advocate before switching to radio. She has previously worked for Stuff in Northland.