❓ Hon. Samantha Rowe questions the WA Health Minister regarding FTE positions abolished, terminated, or not renewed in the South and North Metropolitan Area Health Services since June 2015, and unfilled positions due to the recruitment freeze. The answer provides figures for abolished positions, permanent employee departures, and non-renewed fixed-term contracts, but declines to provide data on unfilled positions due to resource constraints.
AnsweredQoN 3904Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
(1) How many FTE positions in the South Metropolitan Area Health Service have been abolished, terminated or not had their contract renewed since 30 June 2015 to present? (2) How many FTE positions in the North Metropolitan Area Health Service have ben abolished, terminated or not had their contract renewed since 30 June 2015 to present, including a breakdown of how many of these positions were based at Fiona Stanley Hospital? (3) How many FTE positions across the entire Metropolitan Area Health Service are currently unfilled due to the recruitment freeze, which has been in place since December 2015?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
10 May 2016
Responded by
Minister for Planning representing the Minister for Health
Response time
49 days
Answer as at 22 March 2016:
Note in relation to (1) and (2), employees may cease employment at a particular health service for a number of reasons initiated by either the employer or the employee. These include ceasing employment to take up a position at another health service, resigning, retiring or opting for voluntary severance.
WA Health manages a significant number of fixed term employment contracts including Higher Duties Allowance (HDA) arrangements, transfers, secondments and many other temporary staff appointments. These contracts may end for any number of reasons that do not signify the individual employee ceasing employment.
Identifying those employees that left one health service to take up employment at a different health service would provide further context to the figures reported. However, as WA Health currently utilises multiple Human Resource Information Systems across the health services it is labour intensive and not economically feasible to provide this level of information.
(1) There have been 27.2 FTE positions abolished, 446.9 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 818 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed.
(2) There have been 30 FTE positions abolished, 246 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 277 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed.
For Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH), which is part of SMHS, nil FTE positions abolished, 130.9 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 299.8 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed. These FTE figures are included in (1).
(3) The provision of the information sought would require a significant amount of manual research which would divert WA Health staff away from their normal duties and is considered an unreasonable use of the state’s resources. Exemptions are being sought on a case by case basis for clinical positions to ensure hospital care is not compromised.
Note in relation to (1) and (2), employees may cease employment at a particular health service for a number of reasons initiated by either the employer or the employee. These include ceasing employment to take up a position at another health service, resigning, retiring or opting for voluntary severance.
WA Health manages a significant number of fixed term employment contracts including Higher Duties Allowance (HDA) arrangements, transfers, secondments and many other temporary staff appointments. These contracts may end for any number of reasons that do not signify the individual employee ceasing employment.
Identifying those employees that left one health service to take up employment at a different health service would provide further context to the figures reported. However, as WA Health currently utilises multiple Human Resource Information Systems across the health services it is labour intensive and not economically feasible to provide this level of information.
(1) There have been 27.2 FTE positions abolished, 446.9 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 818 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed.
(2) There have been 30 FTE positions abolished, 246 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 277 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed.
For Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH), which is part of SMHS, nil FTE positions abolished, 130.9 FTE permanent employees ceased employment and 299.8 FTE fixed term contracts not renewed. These FTE figures are included in (1).
(3) The provision of the information sought would require a significant amount of manual research which would divert WA Health staff away from their normal duties and is considered an unreasonable use of the state’s resources. Exemptions are being sought on a case by case basis for clinical positions to ensure hospital care is not compromised.
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