CURE MUST BE FOUND FOR UNHEALTHY OVERTIME BILL

ONE of the biggest criticisms of the NT government is its inability to get the management of its departments and their budget spending under control. Health’s massive overtime bill of close to $20 million for the last financial year is another example of that.

It is just a million down on the previous year, so it begs the question why overworked hospital staff are still having to do so much overtime.

All the overtime pay is for clinical staff across the Territory’s six public hospitals, and NT Health has pointed out the department’s coronavirus-era overtime bill came in lower than 2018/19, when clinical staff clocked up $20.67m worth of extra hours.

The largest chunk of overtime costs were incurred at Royal Darwin Hospital ($11.17m), followed by Alice Springs Hospital ($5.72m) and Palmerston Regional Hospital ($1.03m).

We get the fact that how much hospitals spend on overtime is impacted by unexpected increases in demand that require more staff than normal fluctuations in out-of-hours emergency needs, or when hospitals are unable to tap into locums to cover critical vacancies.

Health has always been a bottomless pit when it comes to funding, and there is a very good reason.

A significant portion of our population is the most socially and economically disadvantaged in the nation.

Overall, Aboriginal mortality is four times that of the total Australian population.

The major cause of Aboriginal deaths in the Northern Territory, as in other parts of Australia, is disease of the circulatory system, including heart disease.

There will always be pressure on our hospitals and their staff.

If our hospitals are being asked to achieve the unachievable, should we just be employing more staff?

How many extra doctors and nurses could be employed with the $20 million that is regularly being paid out in overtime?