Interim CEO appointed for health service, state government working to recruit staff

Ms Thomas visited Portland District Health on Tuesday, January 23 before heading to Warrnambool for a tour of the city's new Regional Logistics Distribution Centre.

She announced Fiona Brew, the Colac Area Health chief executive officer, had been appointed as interim CEO for Portland District Health.

The appointment comes after the service's CEO and chief financial officer resigned last year.

"It was great to be able to visit Portland District Health and see first-hand the first-class care that's being delivered by a really dedicated team," Ms Thomas said.

"I know that Portland Health has had some challenges and I'm really delighted that Fiona Brew - a very experienced chief executive officer from Colac Health - is going to take up the role of interim CEO at Portland - in a week's time."

Ms Thomas said staff were pleased to learn of the appointment.

"I think they are feeling very pleased that is happening and they are welcoming such an experienced CEO who knows the region well," she said.

Ms Thomas was asked what the state government was doing to help the service fill the 30 vacancies at Portland District Health.

"The Department of Health - my department - works with each and every one of our health services," she said.

"We are there to support and enable the health services to do their very best in the communities they serve."

Ms Thomas acknowledged Portland District Health had some challenges.

"Portland has some unique challenges when it comes to recruitment and retention of staff, I'm not going to shy away from that, but they're not the only health service that is experiencing that," she said.

Ms Thomas said the state government was committed to building a strong health workforce.

"We have a number of initiatives under way," she said.

"We've made it free to study nursing and midwifery, but I'm very conscious as a regional MP that we have to actively work to recruit and retain staff.

"We've got to get out there and tell the story of Portland District Health and the great opportunities that are available there as well as what a beautiful place it is to live and work."

Ms Thomas said the state government was working hard to educate young people on the benefits of studying and working in a regional area.

"There are other challenges as well in terms of making sure that young people in rural and regional Victoria along the Great South West Coast understand that they can have great careers really close to home," she said.

During Ms Thomas' visit to Warrnambool, she revealed there were no plans to increase the budget for the $384 million budget for the city's hospital upgrade, despite escalating costs.