Health professionals receive pay rise

The Bligh Government has delivered pay increases of between 18% and 39% for radiographers, physiotherapists, dieticians, medical scientists and other allied health and technical professionals working for Queensland Health.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the increases would occur over the life of a new three year enterprise bargaining (EB) agreement and serve as a major pitch for a range of interstate and overseas health practitioners to move to Queensland.

The EB was certified this month but backdated from 1 September 2007.

“The new EB covers around 7,800 health practitioners across 42 professions including podiatrists, speech pathologists, social workers, pharmacists and occupational therapists,” Mr Robertson said.

“Since our landmark nursing and medical EBs of 2006, we have seen thousands of nurses and doctors attracted to Queensland Health – I expect this new agreement to do the same for our allied health and scientific workforce.

“We’ve invested $345 million towards the new EB to ensure our allied health, public health and medical scientific workforce are among the highest paid in the country.

“Since June 2005, we have increased the number of allied health professionals we employ from 5,806 to 7,200.

“The new EB makes Queensland Health a very competitive employer to recruit and retain more radiographers, sonographers and other key personnel to the public system.”

Mr Robertson said 52% of affected employees returned ballots on the new EB in December with 86% voting in favour.

He said as well as significant pay increases, health practitioners would also benefit from better professional development allowance, a higher education incentive, improved on-call arrangements, a new career structure to provide more professional opportunities and a review of rural and remote incentives.

“Under the new EB, a senior radiographer at Proserpine Hospital with a post-graduate diploma averaging three on-call shifts a week and earning around $81,387 a year before the EB last year would be earning $108,170 after 1 September 2009,” Mr Robertson said.

“That’s a 32.9% increase over the life of the EB and includes base salary and yearly increments, a new retention payment of $3,500 (available to all senior level radiographers and pharmacists) and higher qualification, rural and remote, on-call, and professional development allowances.

“Similarly, a new graduate speech pathologist in Brisbane who would have earned $46,322 per annum before the EB would progress to earn $64,522 in the final year of the EB which represents an increase of 39% (including annual increments). In addition they would also receive a $1,500 professional development allowance.

“I expect the positive results of the EB to flow through the health system in the next few years as more health practitioners are recruited to deliver services across the whole allied health and technical spectrum.”

Examples of base salary increases at various levels over the life of the EB:

Technical staff includes dental technicians, laboratory officers and social worker associates.

Other benefits include:

·A new Health Practitioner Career Structure to be implemented with an expanded 8 level scale which will provide more career opportunities for professional and technical staff and recognise the advanced clinical, research and education roles and skills of these staff. All staff will have the opportunity to have their position evaluated for advancement to a higher level.

·Enhanced Professional Development Allowance of $1,500 per annum for metropolitan and major regional employees, $2,000 for rural employees and $2,500 for employees in remote areas to all permanent full time and part time employees. Formerly, allowances were $600, $1,000 and $1,500, respectively.

·A Higher Education Incentive Allowance of between 3.5% and 5.5% of base salary to provide an incentive and reward for employees up to HP4 levels who attain further qualifications above their entry qualification. This did not exist under the previous EB.

·Enhanced Re-Call/Overtime Payment which increases the period of payment from 2 hours previously to 3 hours for a call-out job.

·An Improved Clinical On-Call payment which approximately doubles in most cases over the life of the agreement. This will be paid to practitioners providing ‘on-call’ shifts who may be required for direct clinical interventions where patient health will likely be compromised without timely intervention. For example, a physiotherapist available on-call will be paid $65 per day from September 2009 for being available over the weekend compared to $31 before the EB. This is paid regardless of whether the practitioner is called in to the workplace.

·A Clinical Education and Workload Management Incentive package consisting of significant funding for additional support staffing to manage student, new graduate and junior staff education. This will total 164 Full Time Equivalent positions over 3 years. The package also provides 5 research positions per year increasing to 15 over 3 years and $300,000 per year for research grants.

·Review of Rural and Remote Incentives to examine how rural and remote incentives for health practitioners can be improved as a priority. Currently, selected rural employees receive $60 per week and remote employees received $100 per week in the form of a rural and remote allowance. An additional $2.05 million over 3 years has been provided to support clinical education for rural and remote employees.

·A New Retention Payment of $3,500 per year to be offered to all senior level Radiographers, Sonographer/Radiographers, Radiochemists, Nuclear Medicine Technologists and Pharmacists.

·Commitment has been given to establish a number of key workforce reform projects including demand management, models of care, relief pools, fatigue management, temporary employees, clinical governance and access to Rights to Private Practice.

27 January,  2008

MEDIA: JOSHUA COONEY 3234 1185 or 0409 069 056