EmailHospital Circular 06/2003
Date Issued: 24 March 2003
Publication: 06/2003
Distribution: Chief Executive Officers
Enquiries: Head Office
Subject: Funding Arrangements Relating to 2002 HSUA-1, HSUA-5 and AMA EB Outcomes
In December 2002, the Department advised you of the approach being taken to flow funding for the 2002 HSUA-1 and AMA EB outcomes.
In that letter, I advised that further information was to follow with regard to Reserved Item Funding relating to these outcomes. Further information with regard to those arrangements is provided below.
I can now also advise you that distribution of funding for the recent HSUA-5 enterprise bargaining outcomes has been determined.
Hospitals and health services will receive a funding adjustment for all HSUA-5 outcomes in the second grant run in March 2003. Other health sector agencies will receive funding adjustments through April 2003.
HSUA-1 and AMA EB Reserved Items
There were a number of items agreed in both the HSUA-1 and AMA EB outcomes that either have a differential impact across the health sector or are subject to specific targeting and/or allocation.
As previously advised, the reserved items from the respective EB outcomes are:
| AMA EBA Extended Study Leave Private Practice Income Interstate Travel |
HSUA #1 EBA Patient Services Assistant Personal Care Worker Instrument / Theatre Technicians Study Leave Additional EFT |
Process for Accessing Reserved Items Funding
Reserved items funding arrangements pertaining to the HSUA-1 Agreement outcomes cannot be settled until the Multi-Employer Agreement is certified and the Agreement Implementation Committee is established and has made the relevant determinations. A process will be advised once this has occurred.
A funding process for AMA related reserved item funding is attached and will be effected immediately. Please refer to the attachment for further information.
Information returns should be cleared through the hospital's / health service's Chief Finance Officer.
A process for HSUA-1 related reserved item funding will be developed once necessary matters pertaining to the Agreement have been effected.
Further Information
Please note that distribution of reserved item funding will be based on the criteria established in the relevant EBA.
All queries regarding this letter should be addressed to Simon Chant on telephone 9616 2583, or by email addressed to simon.chant@dhs.vic.gov.au.
Yours faithfully
Lance Wallace
Executive Director
Financial and Corporate Services
ATTACHMENT
2002-2005 AMA Heads of Agreement Outcomes - Reserved Item Funding Guidelines
Outline of Process
The Department has reserved funding relating to a number of items arising from the recent Heads of Agreement (HOA) reached between the AMA, the Department and public health sector agencies.
Funding for these items is to be released to agencies based on information provided by individual agencies describing the respective impact on them of these items.
Agencies are asked to provide information as set out below for each reserved item. An MS Excel spreadsheet is provided for the purpose of reporting this information to the Department.
Study Leave
This provision is based upon one week's paid leave for each Junior Doctor employed in the Victorian public health system.
Agencies will be funded on the basis of the (weighted) proportional impact on them of this provision. Funding will be released at the end of this financial year based on the full financial year impact.
Under the HOA, agencies are required to collect benchmark information to allow confirmation of an increased accessing of this paid leave by junior doctors.
Agencies should provide DHS with this benchmark information, as well as identifying the increased incidence of payment of this leave during the 2002/03 financial year.
Agencies should also provide details of the number (both EFT and Headcount) of Junior Doctors directly employed (on payroll) by them as at 30 June 2003. Details of the total salary cost for these employees at that time are also required.
Agencies that engage junior doctors via a "parent hospital" arrangement (eg where a major teaching hospital seconds a junior doctor to another hospital and invoices that second hospital for the doctor's salary for the period of "rotation") should liaise with the parent hospital in reporting incidence of leave. Funding for additional leave will typically flow to the parent hospital. The non-parent hospital should negotiate necessary invoicing adjustments accordingly.
Refer to the spreadsheet (Excel File 23KB) for full details of data required.
Underpinning of Private Practice
A fixed pool of $850,000 per annum was negotiated under the HOA for the purpose of supplementing the income of directly employed Full-Time Specialists who have no, or limited, capacity to supplement their base salary by way of generated private practice earnings.
Agencies are asked to identify the number (EFT) of Full-Time Specialists who through this incapacity, or limited capacity to generate private practice earnings, would have a remuneration level less than the minimum loaded rates described in the HOA (see VHIA Bulletin 683).
Agencies would further need to identify the total annual value of increasing the remuneration of the Full-Time Specialists identified to the relevant minimum remuneration levels.
Both staff numbers and amounts should be calculated as at 31 December 2002. Where a specialist has had, and is likely to continue to have inconsistent generation of private practice income, an average based on the pattern of income generated over the previous 12 months (1/1/02 to 31/12/02) should be used. All private practice income generated by a specialist is to be used for the purposes of calculation, regardless of whether or not the specialist donates that income back to the hospital.
Where a specialist had been employed for less than 12 months as at 31 December 2002, figures should be averaged based on income generated in the period worked.
Agencies should be aware that the HOA further provides that if the total statewide cost of bringing identified doctors up to the minimum remuneration levels described in the HOA exceeds the $850,000 funding cap, the minimum remuneration levels will be adjusted down such that the cap is not exceeded.
Refer to the spreadsheet for full details of data required.
Interstate Rotations - Travel Costs
The Heads of Agreement provides for Junior Doctors who are on interstate rotations to Tasmania as part of their college training program will have the cost of a return airfare met for them during the course of their 13-week rotation.
Agencies that are "parent" hospitals for such rotations will need to identify the number of trips involved as well as providing information regarding existing reciprocal arrangements between themselves and the receiving hospitals with regard to travelling costs. The Department will not provide funding where a Tasmanian hospital has already agreed to meet such costs.
Agencies will be funded on the basis of the impact on them of this provision. Funding will be released at the end of this financial year based on the full financial year impact.
Refer to the spreadsheet for full details of data required.
Return of Data
Completed spreadsheets (Excel File 23KB) should be returned to:
Simon Chant
Principal Industrial Consultant
Industrial Relations Branch
Email: simon.chant@dhs.vic.gov.au
Returns should be cleared through, or returned by, the hospital's / health services Chief Finance Officer.
Return of data relating to Underpinning of Private Practice should be provided as soon as possible, but no later than Friday 25 April 2003. All other data should be returned by no later than Thursday 31 July 2003.
