❓ A parliamentary question regarding the WA government's spending on agency nurses and the effectiveness of the NurseWest program. The Minister's response deflects direct answers, highlighting nurse recruitment successes.
AnsweredQoN 1207Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer the minister to his media statement of 3 July, which claims that the Government recruited 700 additional nurses, and to the Government’s stated position that it would phase out the employment of agency nurses in this State by early this year. (1) Will the minister confirm that in 2002-03 public hospitals spent $44.3 million on agency nurses, an increase of 67 per cent compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (2) Will the minister also confirm that in 2003-04 a similar figure - in fact, a slight decrease - of $42.5 million will be spent on agency nurses; that is, a 60 per cent increase compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(1) Will the minister confirm that in 2002-03 public hospitals spent $44.3 million on agency nurses, an increase of 67 per cent compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (2) Will the minister also confirm that in 2003-04 a similar figure - in fact, a slight decrease - of $42.5 million will be spent on agency nurses; that is, a 60 per cent increase compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(2) Will the minister also confirm that in 2003-04 a similar figure - in fact, a slight decrease - of $42.5 million will be spent on agency nurses; that is, a 60 per cent increase compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(1) Will the minister confirm that in 2002-03 public hospitals spent $44.3 million on agency nurses, an increase of 67 per cent compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (2) Will the minister also confirm that in 2003-04 a similar figure - in fact, a slight decrease - of $42.5 million will be spent on agency nurses; that is, a 60 per cent increase compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(2) Will the minister also confirm that in 2003-04 a similar figure - in fact, a slight decrease - of $42.5 million will be spent on agency nurses; that is, a 60 per cent increase compared with the coalition’s last year in government? (3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(3) Does that mean that NurseWest has not achieved its objectives and has failed in its desire to stop the dependence of public hospitals on agency nurses? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
(1)-(3) I have made it clear on previous occasions that although I regard myself as having a moderately good recollection of facts and figures, if members want a decent answer to a question down to one or two decimal places on budgetary allocations, they might have the decency to give me some notice of it so that I can get the figures out. Having said that, I make this point: one matter that I am delighted about in the health portfolio is the significant progress that has been made in the recruitment of nurses back into state hospitals. The enterprise bargaining agreement entered into by this Government some two years ago has been instrumental in getting nurses not only to return to work in government hospitals but also to stay there. The figure quoted by the member for Murdoch of an additional 700 full-time equivalent nurses now working in the government hospital system above those that were there two years ago is testimony to the success of that program. However, the program does not stop there. In the Department of Health at the moment - this is crucial to the interests of nurses - is a collection of people working on family-friendly initiatives. Besides the antisocial hours and the very high number of women in the hospital industry generally, particularly in nursing, it was not a family-friendly work environment that took into account the needs of women who wished to pursue a career and the needs of the workplace. That is being radically changed as a result of the very good work being done by a committee headed by Helen Creed to examine ways in which the culture and practices of the Department of Health can be changed to make health a family-friendly work environment. When that is done there will be even more nurses wanting to stay on. The Government will enter into negotiations to renew the EBA for nurses in the new year. In that EBA we want to retain the position we have established; that is, nurses in Western Australia are better paid than are nurses in most other States of Australia. We want to maintain the position that nurses find it attractive to come back to work. The more that come back to work in public hospitals, the more pressure that will be taken off them in the workplace and the more pressure that will be taken off the Government, which can then do things such as open winter beds, open new facilities and consider expanding the range of services available to people in hospitals. We will continue to press hard to reduce the dependency on agency nurses. That is already profoundly the case - Mr M.F. Board: It has gone up significantly. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member for Murdoch and I were both in Kalgoorlie. Does he know how many agency nurses there are now at the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital? Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr M.F. Board: Two. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is right. When I visited Kalgoorlie a number of years ago, an enormous proportion of agency nurses was working at the Kalgoorlie hospital. Similarly at Albany Regional Hospital there is no reliance on agency nurses. As I have travelled around the country visiting hospitals, I have found that Fremantle Hospital has a minimal reliance on agency nurses and that the reliance on them at Royal Perth Hospital, which traditionally had a high reliance, is declining dramatically. That is because we are attracting nurses back to the workplace and because we value them.
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