Response received from State MP -Steve Minnikin Re: the Qld Health SMO contract #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Dear ….
I would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time to contact me, raising your concerns for medical officers threatening to resign from Queensland Health and the consequences of such a situation.
The goal of the Queensland Government is to build the best free public health system in the country – and in two years we have advanced a long way with achievements including shorter hospital waiting lists, improved emergency departments, a ban on hospital bypassing and a reduction in ambulance ramping outside Emergency Departments.
Today, patients and patient care are the central consideration in everything Queensland Health does. Ensuring our doctors have attractive remuneration and terms of employment that protect the interests of patients and our free public hospital system is a key obligation to be addressed through new individual contracts that will apply from July 7.
These changes follow a warning from the State’s Auditor General that the old system of administration required a much higher level of accountability. He said that without change: “Senior Medical Officers may act improperly by putting their private interests ahead of the public interest.”
The Auditor General is the State’s independent watchdog who detects maladministration and seeks to protect the public from its consequences. Last week in State Parliament every elected MP voted to endorse the findings of the Auditor General in his reports on Queensland Health.
The new contracts for the State’s Senior and Visiting Medical Officers will establish these protections. Their implementation has been adjusted to accommodate all concerns raised by doctors’ representatives over eight months of negotiation.
Doctors’ unions that oppose the changes continue to promote a “resignation strategy” as part of a “mass action” campaign, but in every case, decisions about whether a doctor is satisfied with their proposed contract and the protections it offers will be made by the individual doctor concerned.
Our Hospital and Health Boards and the Services they oversee and the Government will not see patients disadvantaged by the current campaign. We will make sure that patients will have a continuity of care and services will not be compromised.
I’ve attached for you a copy of the solutions document put forward by Government, which outlines the agreed changes presented to doctors for their consideration.
I would encourage doctors to review this material in full. They have more than a month to size up the Government’s offer and to discuss its application with their local Hospital and Health Service.
I trust this information addresses your concern.
If there are any further matters I can assist with, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Steve Minnikin MP
Assistant Minister for Public Transport
Member for Chatsworth