Senior public hospital doctors paid a $100,000 allowance to do nothing: report

Taxpayers were slugged more than $800 million during the past decade for Queensland Health's Right of Private Practice scheme. Picture: News Ltd Source: News Limited

The Auditor-General's report found taxpayers were slugged more than $800 million during the past decade for Queensland Health's Right of Private Practice scheme, even though it was designed to be "cost neutral''.

Under the scheme, about 2500 senior medical officers are paid an allowance worth up to 65 per cent of their base salaries for treating private patients in the public hospital system in return for any revenue they generate being given back to their local Hospital and Health Service.

But Auditor-General Andrew Greaves found almost half attracted no private practice income at all in 2011-12 and more than 90 per cent did not generate enough revenue to cover their allowance payments.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The allowance takes the average SMO's annual remuneration from Queensland Health, including superannuation, to close to $400,000 a year.

Mr Greaves said accountability did not rest solely with the SMOs.

"Poor engagement by Queensland Health and administrators has resulted in a culture of apathy and a lack of understanding of the scheme by some SMOs,'' he said in the report.

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg described the scheme as "a financial scandal to rival Queensland's infamous health payroll fiasco''.

"This is a Labor Government scandal where they knew that this was a problem over a number of years but did absolutely nothing in order to address it,'' he said. "I don't believe this is something which can merely be a reflection on the individual clinicians that have taken advantage of it, it's a consequence of a sick administrative structure in Queensland Health presided over by 20 years of Labor Government.''

Mr Springborg said the government would move to place SMOs on performance-based contracts to address the problem.

"We will be paying people for what they do,'' he said. "The world is going to change. We're going to have far more accountability.

"The majority of our doctors are accountable people. The majority of doctors want reform around this.''

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Christian Rowan welcomed the report, saying it offered significant opportunity to improve a "chaotic system that has been vulnerable to confusion and misinterpretation''.

"The focus of public doctors is on providing quality health services to patients, not managing complicated and inefficient billing and administration processes,'' Dr Rowan said.

Mr Greaves said the Right to Private Practice Scheme was introduced by Queensland Health with two major objectives - to capture private patient revenue in a "cost neutral'' manner and to improve the rate of recruitment and retention of SMOs in the public health system.

Although he conceded the scheme had resulted in significant improvements in attracting and retaining doctors by Queensland Health, the department had set no targets to judge how successful this had been.

"In the absence of clear targets aligned to patient demand, Queensland Health cannot demonstrate if it has 'over-achieved', has the right numbers or still needs to recruit more SMOs,'' Mr Greaves said.

Opposition health spokesman Jo-Ann Miller said it was up to Mr Springborg to find answers to the problems raised in the Auditor-General's report.

"Instead of wasting time playing the blame game he needs to give a guarantee that any problems pinpointed by the report will be tackled,'' Ms Miller said.

###