A discrepancy of more than 1900 job losses exists between the government and the union
Close to 5000 health workers have lost their jobs since the LNP won office in 2012, almost 1900 more than the state government admits, Queensland Nurses Union on Wednesday claimed.
QNU secretary Beth Mohle said a series of Right to Information searches run by the union show that 4821 health jobs have gone since March 2012.
According to the QNU that is 1867 more job losses than the state government is admitting.
The state government says 2954 health positions have been lost since March 2012.
After being shown the breakdown, a spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the claims were “absolute bunkum.”
“The only way they can get those sorts of figures was if they included all the positions that were vacant at the time the government changed hands,” the spokesman said.
“It’s a fundamental misrepresentation of the way health positions are counted.”
QNU secretary Beth Mohle said the figures came from the state government after a series of Right to Information requests.
Ms Mohle said the cuts included more than 1700 nurse and midwife positions and far exceeded those forecast by Treasurer Tim Nicholls in the 2012-13 budget.
They show almost 1900 additional health jobs lost than those voluntarily released by the state government.
Mr Springborg’s advisor on Wednesday challenged Opposition Leader Anastacia Palaszczuk to table the QNU’s figures in parliament so they can be scrutinised.
Brisbane Times has been shown a breakdown of health positions for Queensland’s Hospital and Health Regions.
In some cases the figures are described as incomplete, because data from health regions has not yet been supplied.
Beth Mohle says the impact of the job cuts was affecting health care and a recent survey showed nurse and midwives’ morale was very poor.
“Our members are working unpaid overtime, not taking holidays or sick leave and routinely doing double shifts in order to take up the slack and protect their patients,” she said.
“I’m sad to say they are burning out.”
The Queensland Nurses Union was taking advantage of two issues – which Queensland Health could not avoid – resulting in almost 3000 additional job losses, a spokesman for Mr Springborg said on Wednesday.
He said those positions had been slowly replaced in the public and private sector, but last night the spokesman could not provide the detailed figures.
In the first issue, unfunded liabilities from Queensland Health’s payroll system required savings which meant an extra 1500 redundancies, the spokesman said.
Close to 900 redundancies were eventually accepted.
Secondly, the decision by the previous federal government not to continue agreed federal funding, meant close to 2000 extra redundancies had to be offered.
“That was close to $103 million and it had already been factored into our budgets,” the spokesman said.
“Because we had to find those savings over six months – not 12 months – we had find close to 2000 redundancies.”
Those federal health cuts were always denied by Labor’s former Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, who said it was a “reduced level of increase in federal health funds,” not a cutback.
Ms Plibersek said the issue was made public to cover extra Queensland Health cutbacks, which were always denied by Mr Springborg.
Mr Springborg’s spokesman said in the majority of cases the former Queensland Health employees were now working for private companies, on contracts to Queensland Health.
He said a recent example was a decision to provide extra radiography services, through an “external provider” at Rockhampton Hospital.
Source: Brisbane Times