By KATH GANNAWAY
EASTERN Health CEO Alan Lilly has rejected claims that clinicians at the Yarra Valley Community Medical Service (GP Clinic) have been asked to take pay cuts.
Mr Lilly told the Mail last week that he was unaware of any issues related to problems at the clinic prior to the Mail asking for a response to issues on Friday morning (18 July).
The Mail reported on 8 July that the clinic was in crisis following the shock resignation of Dr Murray Barson which, under a contract renewal, would effectively see him take what amounted to a 20 per cent pay cut.
Eastern Health responded to that article with a letter from program director Michele Goding saying there was no crisis, that the clinic was staffed ‘appropriately’ and operating as normal.
Ms Goding did not comment on reports of income reductions.
Dr Ken Tate, a colleague at the GP Clinic, told 150 people at the Save Healesville Hospital Action Group community meeting on Wednesday night (16 July) that Dr Barson was indeed facing a reduction in his contract percentage – effectively a pay cut – confirming information that the Mail had received from other Eastern Health employees or contractors over the past few weeks.
Dr Tate said the clinic was very busy and was making a considerable profit for Eastern Health.
He spoke highly of Dr Barson and his commitment to the clinic and its patients.
“For whatever reason, Eastern Health has decided they want to take more money out of Murray Barson,” he said.
He spoke of re-arrangements of contracts that would reduce the income of another doctor at the clinic and said “ … the clinic is a very unhappy place right now”.
Seymour MP and Liberal Party candidate for the new Eildon Electorate, Cindy McLeish, was at the SHHAG meeting.
She told the Mail that evening that she had raised the issue with Mr Lilly following the meeting and expected that someone from Eastern Health would be visiting the clinic to investigate the concerns raised.
“I thought it was pretty serious for him to speak out like that,” she said.
“People don’t stand up and speak as openly as he did about a problem without there being something to it.”
She said because a locum had been put in to replace Dr Barson, Eastern Health may not have regarded the situation as “a crisis”.
In response to the alleged ‘pay cuts’, Ms McLeish said while she did not know enough about the model used and the way consultations were charged for, it was up to Eastern Health.
“It’s their business; essentially they operate as a business, and they have a right to do that,” she said.
Both Mr Lilly and Ms McLeish said the matters raised in the Mail, and at the meeting would be looked into by Eastern Health.
Mr Lilly said with the clinic being the only routinely bulk-billing clinic in the area, Eastern Health was providing a service that was well and truly beyond what a community health service should provide.
“I think having locum doctors is standard practice and think it’s better that we can provide a service with a locum until we can employ our own doctors,” he said.
He said the payment to doctors was complex and that Eastern Health did not comment on individual contracts.
“I can categorically assure you however, to suggest that doctors have been asked to take a 20 per cent pay cut is untrue and misleading,” he said.
