Fiji, Dec. 12 -- Australia is being accused of draining skilled health workers from Pacific Island countries to fix its own shortage of care workers, pushing fragile health systems in the region closer to collapse, according to a new report.

Research by the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute and Public Services International finds that nurses and other trained professionals from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are abandoning frontline jobs to take up better-paid but lower-skilled care roles in Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

The report warns that health services in some countries are now running at "30-40 percent capacity or below." It also reveals Pacifi...