Nationwide shortage of Occupational Therapists prompts the rise of specialist recruitment agencies.
The recruitment of specialist healthcare professionals has been a
problem for the UK government for a number of years now. Despite
efforts to attract staff to a range of professional streams through
advertising and publicity campaigns http://www.connexions.gov.uk),
there remains an evident shortfall of qualified professionals entering
the health sector to fill the apparent void.
Occupational therapy is one such area where this is felt. Across the
country, regional and national newspapers carry advertisements for
qualified OT’s to fill the vacancies which appear to significantly
outweigh the candidates. Universities have actively used this in
campaigns to fill places on occupational therapy courses, citing the
number of available opportunities
(http://www.brookes.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/ot). Whist this is a
welcome move, the 3 and 4 year duration of these courses does little to
stem a problem that is immediate.
Specialist recruitment agencies (http://www.rigot.co.uk) have appeared
over the intervening years in an attempt to address this shortfall.
Their activities have not been restricted to the UK, using immigration
laws to import professionals from New Zealand, Australia and South
Africa in an effort to fill vacant occupational therapy jobs.
The problem persists and despite increased applicants to university
courses, the newspapers continue to advertise vacant occupational
therapy jobs and will continue to do so for some time.
