Page 1644 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The first recommendation was that nursing shifts overlap at Royal Canberra Hospital and coordination of accrued days off should occur. Savings equivalent to that measure were achieved through negotiations under the structural efficiency principle, and that recommendation was therefore implemented in another sense. The second recommendation was that identification of additional savings measures should be carried out to eliminate budget shortfalls. I have a document which indicates the action that the Government took in response to those recommendations. I present the following paper:
Health Services budget - Additional savings measures recommended by Treasury.
The third recommendation was that we transfer $1.5m from capital plant and equipment to the recurrent budget. That was implemented. The fourth was that we should supplement the hospital base funding by $2.6m from the Treasurer's Advance. That was implemented. The next was that we should create a separate program for public hospitals funding. That was implemented. The next was that we should develop new management structures for a single corporate administration, especially creating the positions of principal director of nursing and medical administrator. That was implemented.
The next was that we should give early consideration to eliminating duplication of services provided by public hospitals. That, of course, Mr Speaker, is a matter which has been progressively implemented through development of the principal hospital in the ACT. The next recommendation was that we increase the capacity of the hospital management to monitor and analyse its budget. Through a number of devices, through the transfer of resources from the department of health, that was implemented; through the appointment of a finance manager, that was implemented; and through the introduction of controls over staffing. In response to that last recommendation, the Government implemented manual controls and initiated a review of nursing staff methodology which resulted in the ACTPAC formula being put in place.
The report also recommended that the Government relocate the two hospitals' activities in one central office. Certain activities were relocated and that, therefore, was implemented. There was a recommendation to ensure that booked admissions are appropriately classified public or private. That was implemented. Finally, there was a recommendation to upgrade management information systems. In the last financial year the Government appropriated $400,000 to upgrade financial information systems as part of a program extending beyond this financial year. Mr Speaker, that has certainly resulted in movement towards the establishment of better financial information systems in our public hospitals.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .