Mr TOYNE - 1999-04-21
Midwifery services at Alice Springs Hospital will see 9 positions go and beds lost. Will the minister explain why the Country Liberal Party is taking an axe to these vital Centralian services?
ANSWER
Shame, Mr Speaker! It is a shame and it’s stupid for the member to promote myths like this and cause concern to staff. He should behave in a more level-headed way. There are no jobs going from Alice Springs Hospital. It is true that sometimes staff move from one ward to another ward. If a ward happens to have lower use and another ward happens to be busy, we move them. It’s called management. We make sure that if a ward has a critical need, we move our resources there. I would have thought that was pretty smart.
The press release put out by the member for Stuart made some outrageous claim that we were doing it as some sort of vindictive effort because we had decided not to proceed with the privatisation of the hospital. That is just nonsense. That is puerile nonsense. There is a proposition to use resources more effectively in the maternity unit and to transfer spare resources to the medical and surgical units, which are experiencing high levels of demand. One would have thought that was a pretty good idea. Instead of saying: ‘Let’s just leave this area with less utilisation and live under stress elsewhere’, we transferred our resource.
I commend the hospital management. I know they’ve talked to the unions about it and they’ve talked to the staff about it. I know there are some staff - perhaps one or 2 who have come to the member because they have a difficulty about moving to other areas. They would prefer to sit in the maternity unit. That’s not going to be the case. We will try to manage our resources to the best effect. I commend the managerial staff at Alice Springs Hospital for delivering a good outcome without reducing staff.
ANSWER
Shame, Mr Speaker! It is a shame and it’s stupid for the member to promote myths like this and cause concern to staff. He should behave in a more level-headed way. There are no jobs going from Alice Springs Hospital. It is true that sometimes staff move from one ward to another ward. If a ward happens to have lower use and another ward happens to be busy, we move them. It’s called management. We make sure that if a ward has a critical need, we move our resources there. I would have thought that was pretty smart.
The press release put out by the member for Stuart made some outrageous claim that we were doing it as some sort of vindictive effort because we had decided not to proceed with the privatisation of the hospital. That is just nonsense. That is puerile nonsense. There is a proposition to use resources more effectively in the maternity unit and to transfer spare resources to the medical and surgical units, which are experiencing high levels of demand. One would have thought that was a pretty good idea. Instead of saying: ‘Let’s just leave this area with less utilisation and live under stress elsewhere’, we transferred our resource.
I commend the hospital management. I know they’ve talked to the unions about it and they’ve talked to the staff about it. I know there are some staff - perhaps one or 2 who have come to the member because they have a difficulty about moving to other areas. They would prefer to sit in the maternity unit. That’s not going to be the case. We will try to manage our resources to the best effect. I commend the managerial staff at Alice Springs Hospital for delivering a good outcome without reducing staff.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016