❓ Hon. Adele Farina questions the Health portfolio regarding reported shortages of child and school health nurses and potential budget cuts. The response confirms shortages and clarifies that frontline services are exempt from budget cuts.
AnsweredQoN 725Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to comments in January from the Western Australian Child Health Commissioner, Michelle Scott, as reported in
The West Australian
newspaper on 21 January 2009, and ask -
(1) Are the reported shortages of 94 community child health nurses and 135 school health nurses accurate?
(2) If no to (1), -
(a) what is the actual shortage in numbers of these positions;
(b) how will the Government be able to make up this shortfall; and
(c) will child health services be exempt from the Governments three percent budget cuts?
(3) If no to (2)(c), why not?
(4) If yes to (1), -
(a) how will the Government make up this shortfall; and
(b) will child health services be exempt from the Governments three percent budget cuts?
(5) If no to (4)(b), why not?
The West Australian
newspaper on 21 January 2009, and ask -
(1) Are the reported shortages of 94 community child health nurses and 135 school health nurses accurate?
(2) If no to (1), -
(a) what is the actual shortage in numbers of these positions;
(b) how will the Government be able to make up this shortfall; and
(c) will child health services be exempt from the Governments three percent budget cuts?
(3) If no to (2)(c), why not?
(4) If yes to (1), -
(a) how will the Government make up this shortfall; and
(b) will child health services be exempt from the Governments three percent budget cuts?
(5) If no to (4)(b), why not?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
2 June 2009
Responded by
Minister for Transport representing the Minister for Health
Response time
27 days
1) The reported shortages in community child health nurses has changed. The shortage of 94 community child health nurses is based on 2006 birth numbers and the number of births in Western Australia has continued to rise since that time.
The reported shortage of school health services has not changed as service delivery benchmarks have been amended following a policy review in early 2009.
(2) (a) The current shortage of community child health nurses based on 2007 birth numbers is 105 FTE.
The current shortage of school health nurses is unchanged at 135 FTE.
(2) (b) Additional funding for increasing the number of child health and school health nurses would need to be considered by Government along with all other competing priorities.
(2) (c) Child and School health services are considered to be 'frontline' direct client care services and as such are not being considered in any efficiency dividend alterations.
(3) Not applicable.
(4) (a) Additional funding for increasing the number of child health and school health nurses would need to be considered by Government along with all other competing priorities.
(4) (b) Child and School health services are considered to be 'frontline' direct client care services and as such are not being considered in any efficiency dividend alterations.
(5) Not applicable.
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The reported shortage of school health services has not changed as service delivery benchmarks have been amended following a policy review in early 2009.
(2) (a) The current shortage of community child health nurses based on 2007 birth numbers is 105 FTE.
The current shortage of school health nurses is unchanged at 135 FTE.
(2) (b) Additional funding for increasing the number of child health and school health nurses would need to be considered by Government along with all other competing priorities.
(2) (c) Child and School health services are considered to be 'frontline' direct client care services and as such are not being considered in any efficiency dividend alterations.
(3) Not applicable.
(4) (a) Additional funding for increasing the number of child health and school health nurses would need to be considered by Government along with all other competing priorities.
(4) (b) Child and School health services are considered to be 'frontline' direct client care services and as such are not being considered in any efficiency dividend alterations.
(5) Not applicable.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
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