STATE HEALTH: ‘Devastating’ cuts to RHH staffing …

INFORMATION GIVEN TO HACSU REVEALS THAT THE HODGMAN GOVERNMENT’S HEALTH CUTS ARE INTENSIFYING. CUTS TO STAFFING IN MOST ALLIED HEALTH DEPARTMENTS IN THE ROYAL HOBART HOSPITAL RANGE FROM 8.5% UP TO NEARLY 25% REDUCTIONS ON FULL TIME EQUIVALENT STAFFING LEVELS.

HACSU State Secretary Tim Jacobson has revealed that devastating cuts to staff in Royal Hobart Hospital Allied Health departments have been decided, with no consultation and no communication with affected staff.

In addition to other departmental cuts, the following reductions are outlined;

Physiotherapy 9.7% reduction of staff drop from 70.84 to 64 FTE
Speech Pathology 16.7% reduction of staff drop from 13.2 to 11 FTE
Social Work 8.5% reduction of staff drop from 35 to 32 FTE
Podiatry 14.2% reduction of staff drop from 13.98 to 12 FTE
Occupational Therapy 12.5% reduction of staff drop from 45.07 to 40 FTE
Nutrition and Dietetic 24.2% reduction of staff drop from 16.49 to 21.5 FTE

“We have been reliably informed that these cuts were not to be revealed to staff until just before Christmas. Thank you very much Mr Hodgman for trying to roll out savage cuts – without consultation – just before services close for Christmas“ Tim Jacobson said today.

“It was only in March that the Government promised no cuts to frontline staff.

“The impact of these savage cuts to frontline health services will be felt acutely by Tasmanians who depend upon our public health system.

“Health professionals are frontline staff, and are already working above and beyond their capacity, as a result of having been pushed to breaking point by an increasing demand for services.

“Members have reported that waiting lists are exploding, and that due to insufficient staffing levels patients are generally far more acute – and therefore harder and more expensive to support – than ever before.”

In addition, the cuts to Allied Health reveal a plan to remove specialist senior staff and replace them with less experienced staff.

“The plain cruelty of these cuts needs to be understood by the public.

“If you can’t access psychological services when you need them, the damage to mental health is profound and in some cases life threatening. If you don’t manage to see a podiatrist in time, you can end up having to have serious surgery. If you can’t access physiotherapy or occupational therapy, your healing and recovery process is severely impacted. Speech therapy for people such as stroke survivors has to be delivered within appropriate time frames.”

“This government also seems to be intent on ending the preventative work performed by health professionals, which just pushes the health and social costs onto future generations.”

Mr Jacobson said “These cuts are particularly offensive as we already know that our Allied Health workers are some of the most stressed workers in the Tasmanian public sector.”

HACSU’s recent member survey revealed that;

 66.7% of health professionals are working more hours than they are paid
 91% work more hours than they are meant to every fortnight
 and 38% finishing late at least half of the time.