Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-15 Daily Xml

Contents

Health Workforce

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:58): Supplementary.

The PRESIDENT: You did promise me it was going to be your last, but I am going to be generous and allow—

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Arising out of the answer; it's very important.

The PRESIDENT: I will allow you a further supplementary, the Hon. Mr Wortley.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Thank you. Given your answer, will the minister guarantee that through this voluntary redundancy process no doctor or nurse who is required in the hospital system will be made redundant?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:58): The honourable member raises an interesting point. When I said that it was voluntary on the applicant I should have also said it is completely non-binding on management. For example, in the SA Pathology context, my recollection—so it's only broad figures—was that there were about 200 expressions of interest and about 100 of those were put aside while management focused on the ones that made sense to work through in terms of the needs of the organisation.

As I said at the conclusion of the original answer, the overwhelming focus and the paramount consideration in all of this will be delivering the best possible care to South Australians, and management will look at each expression of interest in the context of what makes the best sense for the organisation and the patients they provide services to.