3 June 2003

2003-04 Queensland Government Budget
No extra nurses

No increase in patient services – major services actually cut in real terms
Nothing to address the serious nurse shortage facing Queensland & Australia

Despite State Government claims that this year’s State Budget delivers extra health services to Queenslanders the budget documents indicate the reality is quite different, the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) said today.

QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said there is no real increase in nurse numbers, no increase in projected episodes of care in Queensland hospitals and no new initiatives to address the serious nurse shortage confronting Queensland and Australia and which is expected to grow to 31,000 nationally by 2006.

“In fact, if you take into account the Government’s projection of an annual State population growth of 80,000 people, this budget actually represents a cut in health services in Queensland,” Ms Hawksworth said.

“According to the budget documents released today there is a total staff increase across Queensland Health of only 216, and it is not clear how many of these, if any, are nurses. Given there is a new nurse-workloads management system in place across Queensland, as a result of the recent nurses’ industrial dispute, it is hard to see from these figures how this system will be implemented without cuts to services.

“There is also no apparent allocation to pay for many of the new nurse payments recently awarded by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, such as qualification allowances, the in-charge-of-shift allowance and increases in night shift penalties. We are entitled to know how the Government intends paying for these?

In terms of services to Queenslanders, projections for in patient and non-inpatient services remain static with the 2002-03 levels. With the predicted population growth this means Queensland has actually budgeted to cut these health services, on a per capita basis, to the Queensland people.

“So it hard to see how anyone can claim that health is a winner in this State budget. At best there is no projected growth in services. However, given the State’s strong projected population growth it looks as if there is actually a cut in public health services,” Ms Hawksworth said.