Maintenance staff at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital have taken industrial action, citing ongoing concerns over job security. A group of 25 building and engineering maintenance staff walked off the job at 8am on Tuesday, saying management must address the ongoing use of external labour hire companies.
August 3, 2016
The federal government has appointed a former executive from England’s National Health Service (NHS) and Telstra Health to head Australia’s new national health body, the Australian Digital Health Agency. Tim Kelsey, the first national director for patients and information at NHS England, has been appointed as chief executive of the agency which began operation in July and is responsible for all national digital health services and systems, with a focus on engagement, innovation and clinical quality and safety.
August 2, 2016
Monash Health board director Monica Persson has died.
August 2, 2016
The Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal in Tasmania has ruled in the ‘high heels’ case. A worker made a claim for compensation in which she describes suffering an injury that involved her right foot, which she asserts was due to the extent of walking she was required to do in the course of her employment. But the tribunal raised a secondary issue which it did not rule on as neither party raised the issue. Even if the injury was triggered in the claimant’s ‘personal life’, it is open to the tribunal to rule against the employer if the employee aggravates the pre-existing disease as a result of the walking required in the workers employment duties.
August 2, 2016
An application by Ramsay Health Care Pty Ltd (s.240 – Application to deal with a bargaining dispute) will be considered by Commissioner Wilson in Court 3 & Conference Room B – Level 6 in Melbourne at 2pm.
August 1, 2016
A Taranaki nurse who spent 10 years in a US prison for aggravated robbery – then lied about it to the New Zealand Nursing Council – has had his practising licence cancelled. New Plymouth nurse James Middlebrook concealed his past criminal history – which also included holding up a pharmacy for narcotics – when he applied for nursing registration in New Zealand in 2013. He was allowed to practise for 10 months before the council discovered his criminal file and suspended him.
August 1, 2016
The Fair Work Commission has given its imprimatur to the St Vincent’s Health Australia (NSW Private Hospitals) Support Services Enterprise Agreement 2016.
August 1, 2016
Health bosses have assured frontline services will not be affected with the potential loss of nearly 250 temporary jobs from the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. However unions still fear clinical positions are at risk of being axed, and say if that is the case, cost savings need to be found elsewhere. The health service was this week revealed at a budget estimates hearing to be $20 million in the red. A total 247 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions are to be targeted over the next year, however the service’s interim chief executive Clare Douglas told the hearing these would be mainly temporary contract services.
