Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says it’s incredibly concerning the Health department has seen a 47% increase in resignations, and paid almost $20 million in overtime at the Territory’s six hospitals, in the nine months to March 31st 2022.
“Data provided by the Health department shows 1,400 health staff resigned, 65 were sacked and one person was made redundant between July 1st 2021 and March this year. That’s 450 additional resignations compared to the previous reporting period.
“When asked about these figures today in Estimates, the Health Minister, who is also the Chief Minister, couldn’t explain why the number of resignations had risen so dramatically and didn’t know how many of those resignations were frontline workers.
“Departmental data also shows there were 419 stress-related matters reported, and 25 Workers Compensations claims relating to stress were received.
Questioning has so far uncovered:
- The cost of transporting patients between Palmerston Hospital and RDH was $1.85 million;
- 56 health staff were sacked for not complying with the COVID vaccine mandate;
- Health spent around $20 million in overtime at:
- Royal Darwin Hospital $12 million
- Alice Springs Hospital $5.5 million
- Palmerston Regional Hospital $1.2 million
- Katherine Hospital $660,000
- Gove District Hospital $620,000
- Tennant Creek Hospital $520,000
- The Fyles Government is yet to recoup $6.7 million in outstanding costs from people who quarantined at the Howard Springs Centre for National Resilience;
- Close to 6,500 people weren’t charged for their stay at Howard Springs; and
- The Health Minister refuses to release a detailed report outlining the health advice and evidence provided by the Chief Health Officer to government.
“What’s also concerning is the basic information the Health Minister wasn’t across including: how many vacancies there are in remote health clinics, how many remote health clinics have private security, or how much that security is costing Territory taxpayers,” said Mr Yan.
ENDS