❓ Opposition questions Health Minister about job losses at Sir Charles Gairdner and Osborne Park Hospitals due to overstaffing, seeking guarantees against further cuts. Minister explains funding model based on national efficient price and activity-based funding, denying knowledge of a 'phase 2' of cuts and highlighting increased funding for Joondalup Health Campus due to higher demand.
AnsweredQoN 52Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
HOSPITALS — STAFFING
52. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
I refer to the loss of up to 250 jobs at Sir Charles Gairdner
and Osborne Park Hospitals due to so-called overstaffing and the admission by
senior hospital management at staff meetings that these are just the first phases of hospital job
cuts. Will the minister today detail how many other jobs he has identified will
be axed and from which hospitals; or, if there are no further phases, will the minister guarantee that no
further job cuts will occur at WA hospitals?
52. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
I refer to the loss of up to 250 jobs at Sir Charles Gairdner
and Osborne Park Hospitals due to so-called overstaffing and the admission by
senior hospital management at staff meetings that these are just the first phases of hospital job
cuts. Will the minister today detail how many other jobs he has identified will
be axed and from which hospitals; or, if there are no further phases, will the minister guarantee that no
further job cuts will occur at WA hospitals?
AnswerView source ↗
As I have said previously on this
subject, some of the positions will be lost at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
and at Osborne Park Hospital because those hospitals went well over their
full-time equivalent requirements for the number of staff that they had. Through the negotiations in the
federal health sphere, w e have what is called a national efficient price. That price was determined by a
committee that looked at the cost for each hospital of providing a service for
a patient. It reasoned that the cost of doing, say, a hip replacement from go
to whoa in a tertiary hospital in Melbourne should be very similar to the cost
of doing that in every other state. It has recognised extra costs, particularly
for Aboriginality in the north and for remoteness and so on. Nevertheless, we have a national efficient price.
Then we have a state price at
which Western Australian hospitals are currently providing that service, which
is above the national efficient price, and we have to try to get there at some time. Then there is the price that Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital had for its patients, which was above even the state price.
At the end of the day, the hospital was
s omething like $40 million
over budget for that area because it had allowed its number of staff to go
over.
Over the next six to eight months,
the hospitals will not renew contracts when they expire and will allow natural
redundancies to occur so that the hospitals get back to those staff levels. I have heard comments from some of
the nurses about how hard they work there and they certainly do, but we would
not expect them to need additional staff beyond what Royal Perth Hospital or
Fremantle Hospital have or beyond what a similar hospital in the eastern states
has. We would not expect them to need additional staff for a certain cohort of
patients, and they do not.
The hospitals have talked about a phase 2, and I have made
comments to the media that I am not aware of any phase 2. The hospitals get activity-based funding according
to demand. If demand goes up, they will employ people. If the demand goes down,
they will lose more people. The money now goes to where the patients are. Where
do members think that extra money from those two hospitals has gone? It has
gone to Joondalup Health Campus because its demand grew significantly. We spent
the extra money to make Joondalup hospital bigger and turned it into such a
magnificent hospital because that is where the patients want to go. If that is
where the patients go, that is where the money goes.
subject, some of the positions will be lost at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
and at Osborne Park Hospital because those hospitals went well over their
full-time equivalent requirements for the number of staff that they had. Through the negotiations in the
federal health sphere, w e have what is called a national efficient price. That price was determined by a
committee that looked at the cost for each hospital of providing a service for
a patient. It reasoned that the cost of doing, say, a hip replacement from go
to whoa in a tertiary hospital in Melbourne should be very similar to the cost
of doing that in every other state. It has recognised extra costs, particularly
for Aboriginality in the north and for remoteness and so on. Nevertheless, we have a national efficient price.
Then we have a state price at
which Western Australian hospitals are currently providing that service, which
is above the national efficient price, and we have to try to get there at some time. Then there is the price that Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital had for its patients, which was above even the state price.
At the end of the day, the hospital was
s omething like $40 million
over budget for that area because it had allowed its number of staff to go
over.
Over the next six to eight months,
the hospitals will not renew contracts when they expire and will allow natural
redundancies to occur so that the hospitals get back to those staff levels. I have heard comments from some of
the nurses about how hard they work there and they certainly do, but we would
not expect them to need additional staff beyond what Royal Perth Hospital or
Fremantle Hospital have or beyond what a similar hospital in the eastern states
has. We would not expect them to need additional staff for a certain cohort of
patients, and they do not.
The hospitals have talked about a phase 2, and I have made
comments to the media that I am not aware of any phase 2. The hospitals get activity-based funding according
to demand. If demand goes up, they will employ people. If the demand goes down,
they will lose more people. The money now goes to where the patients are. Where
do members think that extra money from those two hospitals has gone? It has
gone to Joondalup Health Campus because its demand grew significantly. We spent
the extra money to make Joondalup hospital bigger and turned it into such a
magnificent hospital because that is where the patients want to go. If that is
where the patients go, that is where the money goes.
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