FIONA STANLEY HOSPITAL —
NON-CLINICAL SERVICES CONTRACT
146. Hon COLIN TINCKNELL to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Health:
Yesterday, a media statement put out
by the Minister for Health's office announced that the government had a
new agreement to absorb 650 staff from Fiona Stanley Hospital into the public
sector. This new agreement includes a one-off transition cost of $12.9 million.
(1) Can the minister please provide a breakdown of
where and how this $12.9 million will be spent or allocated?
(2) Is the
government making this change because the services provided by Serco Australia
have been inadequate; and —
(a) if yes, how
long have services been lacking, and how will this change with the transition
of Serco staff into the public sector; and
(b) if no, how
does the government believe that it can improve on the current system of
operations if the services were not inadequate?
(3) How much does the government
expect to save in adopting this new agreement?
Hon ALANNA
CLOHESY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The $12.9 million
in transition funding is phased over three financial years and will be used to
undertake workforce transition and service design, including the establishment
of new organisational structures, the development of new workflows, policies
and procedures, and procurement of necessary equipment and consumables for each
of the three services.
(2) (a) The
services that will be returned to public control are those that are patient
facing and therefore can directly impact a patient's experience in
hospital and have an important impact on levels of patient care. The decision
to bring these key non-clinical and support services at Fiona Stanley Hospital
back to the public sector delivers on a McGowan government election commitment
to put health care in public hands, stop the privatisation of public health and
hospital services and bring services back into the public sector.
(b) The
government has always advocated that services that directly impact patient care
should be undertaken by the state. Although
there are many opportunities for the South Metropolitan Health Service
to review service delivery models, any changes will not impact on the quality
of services provided to patients.
(3) The estimated
$8 million a year additional costs are based on estimates from similar services
provided at Royal Perth Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The full
cost of transferring the services back to public control is yet to be
finalised. Work has commenced on workforce structures and service delivery
models in order for the state to deliver these services. Cost models and budget
forecasts will be developed in parallel to the transition work.