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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-01 Daily Xml
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PAXTON REPORT

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:57): Will the Minister for Health now act on the Paxton summary report recommendation that the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service be reduced? The report states:

CNAHS has essentially imposed an additional layer of executive management over and above the already existing management structures of the individual facilities.

These regional bureaucracies were set up by the government on 1 July 2004. The report recommends that the regional executive positions be limited to six and that all other regional roles should be allocated back to the existing hospital management with direct operational facilities. The CNAHS annual report tabled this week discloses that there are now 916 employees earning more than $100,000, and 12 of these earn more than $400,000. The total cost of—

The Hon. J.D. Hill interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: They are not all doctors. The total cost is $146.6 million; 25 of them are your executives.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:58): For the record, dealing with the highest-paid workers in the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service (I saw the figures the other day), I think that nine earn more than half a million dollars, and every single one of them is a medical officer; in other words, a doctor. They earn a lot of money. We pay them a lot of money for the services they provide. They are not, as the deputy leader is trying to characterise it, public servants who are sitting in an office: they are doctors working for that service.

As the member indicated, the Paxton report has been tabled in here, and it has been provided to the officers who work in the service. We are working through the recommendations with them. I expect, particularly in relation to the issues about unnecessary bureaucracy, the department to take a very hard line and to reduce to the bare minimum the bureaucratic levels that we require. I am happy for them to take that very hard line.

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