Monday 17^th October 2011

European ‘recruit and retain’ project launched
at Western Isles conference

Delegates from Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden joined NHS Western Isles staff and representatives from
other parts of Scotland this month, for a series of workshops to discuss strategies for recruiting and retaining health
care workers in remote rural areas.

NHS Western Isles, as the Lead Partner for the Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) project Recruit and Retain
(Recruitment and Retention of Health Care Workers in Remote Rural Areas), hosted the first workshop of the project
in Stornoway from October 10 - 12. Sandwiched between two days of project work, a conference entitled ‘Strategies
for Recruiting and Retaining Health Care Workers in Remote Rural Areas’ was held in An Lanntair in Stornoway.

The conference was opened by NHS Western Isles Vice Chair Malcolm Smith. Mr Smith welcomed around 70
delegates from the Western Isles, other parts of Scotland and the NPP partner countries; Greenland, Iceland,
Norway, Scotland and Sweden. The Project Director, Andrew Sim, described the workings of the Northern Periphery
Programme and gave details of the Recruit and Retain project.

Professor Sim explained: “The International setting was illustrated by presentations from Jim Buchan from Queen
Margaret’s University in Edinburgh and Roger Strasser of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Professor
Buchan, representing the World Health Organisation (WHO), summarised the work of the recently completed
WHO project on ‘Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention’.
He indicated how this work dovetailed with the objectives and work packages of the Recruit and Retain project.
Professor Strasser used his immense experience of remote and rural health care in Australia and Canada to
illustrate the problems of attracting health workers to remote rural areas and he explained how the establishment
of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine was training doctors with the necessary skills to work in the more isolated
areas of Northern Canada.”

University of Highlands and Islands (UHI), on how UHI is working to provide educational opportunities for people
living in remote rural areas and how this incorporates courses needed for remote and rural health care.

The Western Isles setting was portrayed by presentations on the challenges of healthcare recruitment in the Western
Isles by Gordon Jamieson, NHS Western Isles Chief Executive, on the nursing perspective by Annetta Smith,
Associate Head of School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at the Western Isles Campus of Stirling University, and
on the recruitment and retention of dental professionals in remote rural areas by John Lyon, Chief Administrative
Dental Officer for NHS Western Isles.

The conference was brought to a conclusion by a discussion facilitated by Jim Ward, Medical Director of
NHS Western Isles, on the topics the Recruit and Retention project should focus on over the next two years.

The Recruit and Retain project, which is resourced through the European Regional Development Fund, sets out to
find solutions to the persistent problem of difficulties in recruiting and retaining high quality health care workers
for the remote rural areas of Northern Europe.

It has five partners from the Agency for Health Protection in Nuuk, Greenland, from FSA Akureyri Hospital in
Akureyri, Iceland, from Helse Finnmark Health Trust in Finnmark, Norway, from the County of Västerbotten,
Umeå, Sweden and from NHS Western Isles, Stornoway, Scotland.

Deanne Gilbert, NPP Project Manager, said: “The project will produce a business plan to develop a system to
deliver a service package for the recruitment and retention of health care workers in remote rural areas.
It is expected that such a system would take on many different forms and may vary from one country to another.”

ends

Notes for Editors:

Pictured are speakers from Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden, at the opening
conference in An Lanntair, Stornoway.