Stroke Service

102 Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (20 June 2018).

1. What are the individual approved leave dates for both stroke specialists this year?

2. Who is the CALHN officer who approved the leave for each specialists?

3. On what date was each specialist's leave approved?

4. On what date were policies changed regarding leave as referred to by the minister in question time on 19 June 2018?

5. What is the relevant section of the policies regarding leave referred to by the minister in question time on 19 June 2018?

6. What was the response by CALHN to the minister's request to shorten the specialists' leave as referred to by the minister in question time on 19 June 2018?

7. During the period in which the two specialists are on leave concurrently—how many hours will the third junior specialist be on call, and how many hours will not be covered by on-call staff?

8. Has CALHN or SA Health contracted the specialist at Flinders to help cover this period and if so what is the cost of that contract?

9. Have any staff been cautioned or had disciplinary action commence because of the concurrence of leave of the two stroke specialists?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining): The Minister for Health and Wellbeing has been advised:

1. Given the unexpected unavailability of a locum and the specific circumstances of this matter, one of the INR specialists who had planned to take leave in July changed their leave plans to allow them to be on the INR roster.

2. The approver for leave is the Campus Clinical Head, Royal Adelaide Hospital.

3. The original periods of leave were approved in January and February 2018, on the basis that a third INR specialist would be available to provide 24/7 cover for this period.

4. Revised rostering principles were released earlier this year.

5. Under the rostering principles, it is stated 'Rosters must ensure that there is sufficient and appropriately skilled staff rostered to work in order to provide appropriate patient care and meet anticipated service demands.'

While on-call cover can be provided by one INR specialist, it is accepted that the particular circumstances surrounding the period of time for the cover in this case means that the applications for leave should have been considered more diligently. For this reason, an interstate locum had been contracted to provide support during this period, however, was unable to fulfil the contract due to unexpected circumstances.

6. As detailed above, one of the INR specialists who planned to take leave changed her leave plans to allow her to be on the INR roster for the period in question.

7. There is no longer any concurrent leave. The third specialist is not a 'junior' clinician but like her colleagues is a senior consultant radiologist and is one of about 40 qualified INR specialists across Australia.

8. Arrangements were put in place for the INR specialist at Flinders Medical Centre to provide support for part of the period (from 1 July 2018 – 5 July 2018) if required. This was not needed due to the change in leave plans.

9. No. A new Campus Clinical Head was recently appointed, commencing in July 2018. The first task for the Clinical Head will be to better manage the co-ordination of annual leave amongst clinical staff.