MINISTER FOR HEALTH —
PORTFOLIOS — STAFF LEAVE BALANCES
386. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Health:
I again refer to the minister's
answers to parliamentary questions on notice 1539 and 1931, concerning annual
leave liability balances across the health services as at 30 June 2018 and 31
December 2018, respectively.
(1) Why has the number of staff with excessive
accumulated annual leave balances of eight weeks and above—the equivalent
of two years of outstanding annual leave—increased by a sum total of
948 people and at a cost of $35 million across the North, South and East
Metropolitan Health Services and the Western Australian Country Health Service
and the Child and Adolescent Health Service, over a six-month period?
(2) Can the
minister guarantee that this extraordinary increase in excessive accumulated
annual leave balances does not pose risks to staff welfare and to the standards
of clinical care provided to the public?
Hon ALANNA CLOHESY
replied:
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question. Because of the nature of the
question, the answer is necessarily long and complex. Mindful of standing order
106—that the reply needs to be concise—I seek leave to have the
answer incorporated into Hansard, with the agreement of the questioner.
Leave granted.
The following material
was incorporated —
I thank the Honourable Member
for some notice of the question.
Child and Adolescent Health
Service (CAHS)
(1) CAHS has focused its attention on employees with
excessive leave balances to ensure that they have a leave management plan. There was a slight increase in annual leave
accrued for 3 months after the initial move to Perth Children's
Hospital. The CAHS Board is considering reduction controls.
(2) CAHS is cognisant of the issue of fatigue on
employees. A monthly report is provided to Executive of employees who have not
taken leave in the last 12 months and do not have a leave management plan.
East Metropolitan Health Service
(EMHS)
(1) The increase for EMHS represents 227 staff at a cost
of $7.9 million. This increase has occurred despite efforts to clear excess
leave while continuing to provide appropriate staffing levels. The data
provided for 31 December 2018 would not include leave taken over the 2018–19
Christmas and school holiday period when there is a significant utilisation of
leave taken.
(2) Increases in excess leave should have no impact on
the provision of clinical care to the public or on the welfare of staff. This
is a legacy issue of accrued leave that EMHS is seeking to manage.
North Metropolitan Health
Service (NMHS)
(1) The headcount of staff with up to six weeks of
annual leave outstanding has decreased over the six month period, with only a marginal
increase in the associated total dollar value. This outlines good leave
management practices for current annual leave allocations at NMHS. The increase
in accumulated leave liability above six weeks (i.e. non-current leave) is
reflective of FTE management strategies implemented by the NMHS. In
implementing these FTE management strategies, NMHS acknowledged that a resulting
impact would be an increase in annual leave liability, due to reduced
opportunities to backfill staff, and therefore the rate at which staff are able
to take leave would reduce.
(2) There is no risk to staff welfare and to standards
of clinical care provided to the public, as NMHS actively manages staffing
welfare, and clinical safety through a variety of strategies, and to address
this accumulated leave issue has developed a Fatigue Prevention and Management
Policy.
South Metropolitan Health
Service (SMHS)
(1) In SMHS this can be attributed to the change in an
industrial policy with respect to the treatment of time-off-in-lieu (TOIL) in
the medical officers' cohort that was changed to an annual leave
liability in the period between July 2018 and December 2018.
(2) Strategies are in place to reduce excess leave but
the benefits of such strategies are not realised immediately as it is dependent
on when staff take the leave. In SMHS although there has been an increase in
employees with excess annual leave in Quarter 3 2018/19, there has been a reduction
in the number of employees with excess long service leave. The management of
excess leave needs to be carefully balanced to ensure there is no impact on
patient care, managers utilise employee leave management plans to ensure
sufficient coverage. Improved reporting has increased the managers ability to
monitor and plan for leave.
WA Country Health Service
(WACHS)
(1) A point in time comparison between June and
December is not representative of broader leave balance trends. Based on
historical trends over a calendar year it is ordinary for leave balances to
increase between June and December before employees take their leave over the
Christmas holidays and the longer school break. While the WACHS staff headcount
with annual leave balances of more than 8 weeks increased by 13% between June
and December 2018, a comparison between June 2018 and January 2019 only
demonstrated a 3% increase, noting total WACHS headcount also increased during
this period.
(2) This observation is a regular trend in leave usage
patterns and does not pose risks to staff welfare and to standards of clinical
care. WACHS continues to actively monitor and manage Excess Leave.