$182 Million On Fill-in Health Workers

The cost of outsourced health staff, in other words not directly employed by the state government, soared to $182 million last financial year in newly accessed Right To Information documents.

Locum doctors were $105 million of that and agency nurses $77 million.

Labor member for Clark Ella Haddad reckons if the government succeeded in recruiting directly, they’d save the health system a fortune.

“They are haemorrhaging staff, now they are haemorrhaging the health budget to plug up the gaps to employ outsourced doctors and nurses instead of directly employing staff in a safe and stable and secure workforce.”