Health Minister to investigate claims of service cuts

THE Health Minister will investigate claims frontline services have already been affected by the Health Department's strategy to cut $120 million from their budget.

The cuts must be made as part of the WA Government’s three-per cent efficiency drive.

Dr Kim Hames was under siege at a press conference today amid claims a letter sent to mental health staff earlier this week listed a number of initiatives to be introduced immediately to create savings.

These included a decision that community health nurses who take leave for two weeks or less should not be backfilled.

“I need to make sure that my Health Department staff aren’t being given directions that will affect frontline services,” Dr Hames said.

“That document doesn’t say that in the past up until now those changes have been made.

“It is saying that they will be made, but I will make sure they will not be made.”

Dr Hames conceded he could not guarantee that in the past few weeks Health Department executives had not given directives that could influence frontline services.

“If in the past week or two changes have been made that may have affected them in some way – personally I doubt it – but if they have I will make sure that they stop,” he said.

Yesterday, PerthNow revealed an internal discussion paper by Fremantle Hospital executives which suggested a number of radical proposals to meet the efficiency drive.

These included:

• No longer paying for staff travel from operating funds
• Cutting staff overtime by 25 per cent
• Cutting cost and maintenance by 10 per cent
• Cutting the use of casual staff by 25 per cent
• Cutting temporary contract staff by 25 per cent
• Keeping to a minimum any external catering for staff functions including alcohol and entertainment
• Discharging patients with the minimum amount of prescription drugs

Opposition Health spokesman Roger Cook slammed the discussion paper saying it revealed the public had been mislead by the government's claim that frontline services won't be affected by the budget cuts.

"After years of recruiting doctors and nurses to help reduce the state’s waiting lists and to provide better clinical outcomes for patients the hospital system will now be forced to take a giant step backwards," Mr Cook said.

"Major cuts to overtime will reduce flexibility in the system for staff and patients and the challenge of retaining good doctors and nurses will be made so much harder.

"Our front line health workers, our nurses, our doctors and our medical interns will have to operate with fewer resources and will have their duties expanded to cope with these cuts."

Dr Hames said the proposals were only ideas and he promised nothing would be introduced that would affect frontline staff.

“We have had meetings this morning with the Health Department to discuss this issue and I have made it very clear to both the director-general and the senior officers that I will not accept cuts to frontline services,” he said.

Dr Hames rejected claims from the Nurses Union today that they have had hundreds of angry emails describing cuts that have been recently introduced and are affecting frontline services.

“I will like to see those emails because I don’t accept that that’s true,” he said.

Dr Hames also rejected claims that the nurse to patient ratio at Armadale Kelmscott District Memorial Hospital had blown out from 1:4 to 1:6.

“That’s not my understanding, in fact I was told today that we have had increasing numbers of nurses at Armadale Hospital,” he said.

Dr Hames said admitted he would seek to reduce the use of agency nurses in hospitals.

“The reality is that every agency nurse costs an additional $50,000 that goes to the agency not to the nurse,” he said.

“What we are trying to do is increase the employment of nursing staff directly by the government.

“Of the 1000 nurses employed at Fremantle Hospital only 38 are agency nurses.”

The three per cent efficiency drive was agreed to by both major parties before the State election to fund promises made during the election campaign.

By Anthony Deceglie, health reporter

Article from www.news.com.au/perthnow