Public hospital staff numbers appear to have significantly increased in the first year of the Liberal government despite an expected slashing of jobs.
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The Liberals went to the 2014 election promising to shed 500 public sector jobs over four years and signalled in June that year a further 1000 could be cut.
But new data shows that the number of full-time equivalent staff in Tasmania’s 23 public hospitals increased by 1385 positions in 2014-15 compared to the previous year. The 2013-14 figures excluded staff from “two small hospitals”.
While the government could not comment on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report Hospital resources 2014–15: Australian hospital statistics, it is expected a statement will be released on Friday.
The total FTE employed in hospitals in 2014-15 was 7992. Nursing numbers increased by 1230 on the previous year and administration also received a boost.
In the same report it was revealed that the number of beds in Tasmania’s public hospitals has not increased since 2010-11.
The state “reclassified” a number of hospital beds in 2014-15, resulting in an apparent increase of 103 beds on the previous year, but the report noted that after adjusting for the change in purpose there had been a .8 per cent increase on 2013-14 and no increase in the previous five years.
Tasmania was about the national average for the number of hospital beds available per capita with 2.5 beds per 1000 compared to 2.6.
The total number of public beds available was 1299.
In a separate Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, also to be released on Friday, it was shown that Tasmania was below the national average for admitting emergency department patients to hospital within four hours.
Seventy per cent of emergency department patients were seen on time.
The average waiting time for elective surgery was 55 days. Ten per cent of patients waited 424 days, with 12.9 per cent of people waiting more than one year.