6 June 2017

Michael Ferguson, Minister for Health

Taking action to address locum costs

The Hodgman Liberal Government is taking action to address the long term issue of locum costs while ensuring the best health services for Tasmanians who live in regional areas.

While it’s not ideal, the state has historically had to rely on the use of locums for positions that could not be filled within the Tasmanian Health Service (THS) and the expected locum cost in 2016-17 is $27.75 million.

The THS has implemented a number of strategies to reduce locum costs including:

• offering permanent placements to long term locums and recruiting permanent medical staff;
• reviewing rosters to reduce very short locum contracts;
• offering additional shifts to current employees to cover vacant shifts;
• targeted recruitment campaigns; and
• reviewing the medical workforce and models of care to ensure the workforce is best suited to meet the needs of the community and can be resourced on an on-going basis.

To address locum costs, late last year we employed a Director of Medical Services on the North West to focus specifically on the employment of additional permanent staff in the region.

Additional permanent staff have also been employed recently at the Launceston General Hospital.

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