WA Health Minister Kim Hames has confirmed the equivalent of 1,163 jobs will need to go from the South Metropolitan Health Service if the Government is to bring spending back to sustainable levels.
The Government flagged significant cuts to the public health sector last year, with Premier Colin Barnett describing staffing numbers as “several hundred” above desired levels.
At the time he said the problem had emerged due to the need to maintain staff at existing hospitals while Fiona Stanley Hospital was commissioned.
That sparked fears from the State Opposition that up to 1,000 jobs could be cut from health, although Dr Hames said a final figure would not be available until the middle of this year.
Last month’s mid-year economic review, which revealed a projected budged deficit of more than $3 billion for this financial year, again led to renewed speculation about the size of the looming health cuts.
Dr Hames today confirmed up to 1,163 full-time equivalent positions needed to be shed in the coming months, almost half of which would come from Royal Perth Hospital (RPH)
The Minister was unable to state exactly how many jobs would go, but said the Government would offer up to 250 voluntary redundancies in the South Metropolitan Health Service.
Affected hospitals would then need to find efficiencies to make the necessary savings.
Dr Hames said there would be no forced redundancies.
Inefficiencies need to be addressed: Hames
The Minister said the changes were necessary to bring WA’s health spend closer in line with the rest of the states.
“Equivalent hospitals in other states are able to do the same amount of work but at a much cheaper cost,” he said.
“Part of that is we pay our doctors and nurses and Allied Health workers more than the other states do.
“But that only equates to less than half the total difference in cost.
“The reality is that we are not as efficient in managing our system as they are.”
The savings would be made through changes to overtime and on call rosters would form part of the savings measure.
Royal Perth Hospital faces biggest job cuts
In total 568 full-time positions will go from RPH, 334 of them clinical.
A further 297 jobs would be shed at Fiona Stanley Hospital, 189 of which were clinical positions.
The remaining cuts would be made at Armadale, Fremantle and in the Health Department’s headquarters.
Dr Hames said it was essential for the State Government to get on top of spending growth in the health sector in the wake of the mid-year review.
“We’ve seen the amount of deficit the state has got,” he said.
“We’ve seen health go from just under 25 per cent of the total state budget to now well over 28 per cent.
“If we don’t trim our efficiencies in health then we’re going to have a shortage of funding in police and in teaching and in a whole range of other areas.
“There’s only so much of the bucket to go around.”
Government ‘sugar coating savage cuts’
Labor’s health spokesman Roger Cook described the cuts as breathtaking.
“Hundreds of jobs will go in voluntary redundancies alone. And there will be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cuts to the hospital system,” he said.
“The Government refuses to provide details to WA taxpayers about how their ongoing mismanagement of the hospital system will impact on patient services.
Mr Cook said the cuts would mean patients would wait longer for care and ambulance queues would continue to grow.
“In early December they accused the Opposition and the AMA of being alarmist about job cuts. Today we saw more job cuts announced, but less detail provided.
“The Minister is lying to the public, and trying to sugar coat what are going to be savage cuts.
“Fiona Stanley Hospital is struggling to cope with the level of demand and the level of jobs they have allocated at the hospital.
“If you take another 200 jobs out you’re going to see more stories of patients suffering at that hospital.”
Upsetting situation for medical staff: AMA
Australian Medical Association WA president Michael Gannon said Dr Hames was wrong to make direct comparisons to other states.
“It’s more expensive to provide health services in WA, a state more than 10 times the size of Victoria,” he said.
“There are realities about Aboriginality. The mental health problems that seem to be more of a problem in WA. We know about the health problems of fly-in fly-out work.”
Dr Gannon said the situation was upsetting for medical staff.
“It’s a problem in terms of the uncertainty they have for their jobs and their families. And it’s also upsetting in terms of the quality of care they can give to their patients,” he said.
“Week by week little examples of the cost to patients become more obvious.
“When frail, half blind opthalmology patients have to get on the bus from Kelmscott or from Rockingham to go to Fremantle, that’s the kind of cuts we’re talking about.”