Queensland Health pay bungle continues into June

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJun 2 2010

Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

The new payroll system for Queensland health care staff introduced this March is still not fixed even at the end of the sixth fortnightly pay cycle. Many have been over, under or not paid after the system was introduced. More to the “shame” of the authorities two dead nurses have been paid and one dead nurse’s name reappeared in the duty rosters.

Nurse Val Wright who has been working for the past 37 years, died some 10 weeks ago. The family is still receiving checks from the authorities and has already received at least five checks so far. Repeated calls to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital from her friends and family have not fixed the problem. The family understandably is quite “upset” about the issue. The payments are also upsetting the winding up of her property for the beneficiaries.

QH admitted its error and said that another nurse was also paid after her death. In this connection a spokesman for QH said that a system to identify deaths during service and taking required measures was in place. He said, “A co-ordinator is appointed to manage and conduct all arrangements in compliance with industrial obligations…In addition to ensuring that the...payroll team is contacted to finalise entitlements, and other relevant agencies are also notified, the policy recognises the respect and support to be provided to the employee's family.”

The Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) feels that this bungle is totally unacceptable. It is distressing for the families and also for colleagues. In another macabre incident one of these nurses reappeared in the duty roster although she died in April. This was most upsetting for colleagues the QNU said. The union's spokeswoman, Beth Mohle said, “The processes just aren't there to expedite stopping the pay of those people appropriately, which we find pretty amazing…There should certainly be a manual override where that just does not happen - that people who have died are immediately ceased from the system.”

There was no reassurance earlier from Health Minister Paul Lucas that the payroll problem will be resolved by the end of this financial year but promised that errors will be corrected manually. The health service's payroll director has already been removed from service in this connection.