May 2022 Meeting with the opposition Leader NSW Parliament
11th May 2022 Meeting with opposition leader NSW Mr Chris Minns - Deputy Chair Kath Carmo (R) and Secretary Therese Jacques
21st August 2017
R-L Ms Elizabeth Koff NSW Secretary of Health, Hon Brad Hazzard Minister for NSW Health, Dr Theresa Jacques - Secretary NSW MSEC, Dr Bruce Cooper - Treasurer NSW MSEC, Dr Tony Joseph - Metropolitan Chair NSW MSEC, Dr Ruth Arnold Rural Chair NSW MSEC, Dr Kathryn Browning Carmo Deputy Chair NSW MSEC
meeting in the MInister's office
The executive of NSW MSEC met with the NSW Health Minister, the Hon Brad Hazzard, and the Health Secretary Ms Elizabeth Koff on Monday 21st August 2017.
The meeting was very positive and covered a wide range of topics, as outlined in the Ministerial presentation on the documents tab for the meeting. The meeting discussed clinician engagement with the LHD Boards and the survey results (NSW MSEC, AMA/ ASMOF) which show a need to improve systems of engagement and achieve much greater consistency across NSW.
The role of the former State-wide Services was raised, with discussion about how the current model of 15 LHDs does not fully address the planning, operational and equity of access needs of services required to function across LHDs, nor the state-wide planning role of new technologies and services and which centres should be resourced to undertake them.
A range of improvements to systems of engagement were suggested, on behalf of NSW MSEC, and will be discussed further at future meetings.
It was agreed at the meeting that:
1. The Executive of NSW MSEC be invited to present to the Meeting of LHD Board Chairs in October.
2. The NSW MSEC Executive will meet with the Minister and Health Secretary 3 times per year, with the next meeting TBA in Oct/early Nov
3. NSW MSEC will work with the Secretary further on some of the issues raised
Meeting 1st June with the Secretary of Health - Left to right - Dr Setthy Ung (Deputy Chair MSEC), Dr Kate Sellors (Rural Chair NSW MSEC), Susan Pearce Secretary NSW Health, A/Prof Kathryn Browning Carmo (Metropolitan Chair NSW MSEC) and Dr Mark Priestley (Secretary NSW MSEC)
NSW MSEC meeting with Ryan Park, NSW Minister for Health, June 2023
The NSW Medical Staff Executive Council met with Ryan Park, NSW Minister for Health, on Thursday 16th June 2023, welcoming him into his new role. We emphasised that currently our greatest priority is meaningful award reform for staff specialists in NSW. The severe disparity between the NSW award and the award in other states, as well as the disparity with other public and private employment options in NSW, is resulting in i) loss of high quality clinicians, educators and potential leaders from NSW Health, ii) inability to attract the best recruits into the public hospital system, and iii) disengaged staff who remain but feel severely undervalued and burnt out. The general staffing shortages are also exacerbating extreme workforce shortages in rural and regional NSW. The inability to be remunerated for after hours work, a problem specific to NSW, is particularly egregious.
The Minister acknowledged the problem and confirmed that the Ministry of Health had begun processes to review the award. We noted that the process had been very slow so far and looked forward to greater engagement on this subject from the Ministry of Health from now on. We felt it would be particularly important not to wait for current disputes in the industrial relations commission to be resolved before commencing discussions around award reform. We also highlighted that any small percentage increase in the award should not replace a more comprehensive review of the award.
We inquired as to the progress of the implementation of recommendations from the Parliamentary Inquiry into health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote New South Wales. The Minister confirmed that implementation was incremental and discussed some examples of progress. It was mutually agreed that we would like to see meaningful progress, particularly in measures to improve the recruitment and retention of staffing in rural and remote locations.
Minister Park was very engaged during the meeting and keen to address the issues raised, and was committed to continuing an ongoing relationship with further regular meetings with NSW MSEC. A general meeting of NSW MSEC members will be arranged before our next planned meeting with the Minister in August to further refine our discussions.