Page 4191 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014
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MS GALLAGHER: As I say in the opinion piece, which no doubt Mr Hanson read over his Weet-Bix this morning, there is a mix of both required in the health system. In actual fact, when employment offers are made, it is quite often what arrangements suit either the unit or the health professional themselves. Those are the decisions that are taken. It is not that employing VMOs delivers a good outcome and employing staff specialists delivers a bad outcome, and vice versa. Good doctors exist under both employment categories. We need both of them. We have both of them. And numbers are increasing. Numbers overall are increasing all the time.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Chief Minister, is the increasing use of full-time staff doctors a reason for the ACT having one of the most expensive health systems in the country?
MS GALLAGHER: No. There are a number of reasons why our expenditure on health has grown. One of them is that we have been investing in it and we prioritise it. It is the number one area across government. We have been employing more doctors every single year. As I said, there are different reasons. If we need more teaching and research capacity in a unit, a staff specialist may be the option that is preferable to somebody who is largely part time and working on a sessional basis. It really is up to the operational needs of the hospital.
There is no policy decision that has been taken by the government, contrary to the belief of Dr Peter Hughes and some of his colleagues at the VMOA. I have sought to reassure him on this a number of times. But the system is changing. It is developing. It is getting bigger. The demands on it are larger. The teaching requirements are more significant. In that instance it may mean a staff specialist is preferable to a VMO, but there are just as many occasions when a VMO is preferable to a staff specialist. Those decisions need to be taken by the hospital in the interests of the Canberra community.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Minister, what impact has increasing the proportion of staff doctors over the past eight years had on the culture at the Canberra Hospital?
MS GALLAGHER: I guess it will depend on who you want to talk to about that. There are very positive VMOs and there are very negative VMOs. There are very positive staff specialists and there are negative staff specialists. I do not think it is peculiar to the employment mechanism—because that is what we are talking about. It is about whether you are employed as a private contractor or whether you are employed as a public servant.
In relation to costs overall, the cost per hour is $181 for a staff specialist. The cost for a VMO is $238 per hour.
Mr Hanson: Does that include super?
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