The Paxton Report has now been released by the Minister for Health and a copy of the report can be downloaded from the Department of Health website on www.health.sa.gov.au

The Public Service Association (PSA) and Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), attended the Metropolitan Hospital Efficiency and Performance Review Steering Committee on Tuesday 1 April 2008, where an overview of the recommendations were reported. It was agreed to meet again within the next two weeks to give the Health Units and PSA time to read the above report, and to reach agreement upon the implementation process.

Whilst the PSA is still analysing the recommendations from the Paxton Report there appears to be a number of contradictions in what is being proposed.

For example, the system-wide recommendations suggest “Nursing staff at the hospitals currently perform a material amount of non-nursing duties (duties which could be undertaken by clerical staff). These activities should be evaluated and where relevant substituted with more appropriate staff (adjusting the nursing profile accordingly)”. But for RGH, one of the key recommendations is to “target major Administration FTE reductions of some 40 FTE consistent with the upper end of other hospitals reviewed.....”.The PSA understands that the RGH may have already implemented the system-wide recommendation and now will be penalized for doing so.

The Health Units mainly affected by this report are Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH), Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), Lyell McEwin Hospital (LMHS) and Repatriation General Hospital (RGH).

It is important to note that Mental Health Services were excluded from the review, except for any effects noted in other service areas resulting from the impact of mental health patients (i.e emergency department demands).

PSA WORKING FOR MEMBERS IN HEALTH