NSW MSEC Ministry & Government Meetings

The executive of NSW MSEC met with the NSW Health Minister, the Hon Brad Hazzard, and the Health Secretary Ms Elizabeth Koff. The meeting was very positive and covered a wide range of topics, as outlined in the Ministerial presentation. 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 agreed to be discussed further at future meetings.

Agreed outcomes:

1. The Executive of NSW MSEC to 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.

NSW MSEC met with Mr Chris Minns, then NSW Opposition Leader, at NSW Parliament to discuss issues facing medical staff across the public health system.

NSW MSEC met with the Secretary of Health, Susan Pearce, to discuss the findings and recommendations of the Rural Parliamentary Inquiry into health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote New South Wales.

The NSW Medical Staff Executive Council met with Ryan Park, NSW Minister for Health, welcoming him into his new role. The primary focus was on meaningful award reform for staff specialists in NSW.

NSW MSEC emphasised that 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, was resulting in:

1. Loss of high quality clinicians, educators and potential leaders from NSW Health.
2. Inability to attract the best recruits into the public hospital system.
3. Disengaged staff who remain but feel severely undervalued and burnt out.

The general staffing shortages were also noted as exacerbating extreme workforce shortages in rural and regional NSW. The inability to be remunerated for after hours work — a problem specific to NSW — was highlighted as particularly egregious.

The Minister acknowledged the problem and confirmed that the Ministry of Health had begun processes to review the award. NSW MSEC noted that the process had been very slow and looked forward to greater engagement on this subject. It was highlighted that any small percentage increase in the award should not replace a more comprehensive review.

NSW MSEC also 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.

Minister Park was very engaged during the meeting and committed to continuing an ongoing relationship with further regular meetings with NSW MSEC.