Staff at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre warned about cuts to overtime as funding dramatically reduces

A major cancer hospital has warned its staff there are plans to cut overtime while revealing many Victorian hospitals are planning “significant reductions to services to save costs”.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s executive John Spillane told staff many hospitals are planning “significant reductions to services to save costs”.

A major cancer hospital has told doctors there was a “dramatic reduction in funding” for Victoria’s health services in the last budget while announcing plans to cut staff overtime.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s executive John Spillane told staff “many hospitals are planning significant reductions to services to save costs” in an email, seen by the Herald Sun, on Tuesday.

“Peter MacCallum is unfortunately not immune to the budget cuts,” he wrote.

Mr Spillane said surgical registrars and fellows were collectively working 130 to 150 hours of overtime each week, but there was a new directive from the executive to reduce overtime, across the entire hospital, by 30 per cent.

“This includes across the registrar and fellow budget as it does nursing, theatre, anaesthetic and consultant surgeon budgets,” he wrote.

Junior doctors were told their supervisor must email approval for overtime “in real time” to three executives and they recommend in operating theatres that “only one trainee stays back after hours”.

Premier Jacinta Allan has repeatedly denied her government’s post-Covid financial mandate represents a cut in healthcare funding. Picture: Ian Currie

In recent months hospital insiders have repeatedly warned services’ operating costs exceed their yearly funding, labelling government’s directives to slash “inefficiencies” as unrealistic and a risk to frontline service cuts.

The Allan government has repeatedly denied their post-Covid financial mandate represents a cut in healthcare funding, and has insisted patient care will not be impacted.

The budget concerns come at the same time a landmark unpaid overtime civil case has put health services on notice, with junior doctors winning a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit against Peninsula Health last year.

The Federal Court found that junior doctor Gaby Bolton wasn’t paid for overtime during four rotations at Frankston Hospital in 2019 and 2020.

She was the lead plaintiff in the class action representing 1600 doctors, who won the case when Justice Mordecai Bromberg found Peninsula Health breached the Fair Work act when it didn’t pay Dr Bolton for work she was authorised to do.

Further similar class actions are now expected to be fought in the courts against more than a dozen health services across the state.

Junior doctor Gaby Bolton was the lead plaintiff in a class action representing 1600 doctors.

Andrew Grech, a senior lawyer and partner at Gordon Legal which ran the Peninsula Health class action, asked: “What is a doctor supposed to do? Not revive a dying patient because their supervising consultant is not available to approve their overtime?”

Mr Grech said the Peter McCallum email demonstrated that despite a new enterprise agreement that was supposed to allow more unrostered overtime, “hospitals will use their ‘processes’ to make it almost impossible for people to claim the overtime they’re owed”.

“Our vulnerable junior doctors pay the price whenever budgets are squeezed,” he said.

“Our public hospitals rely on exploiting the labour of junior doctors by making the claims process unworkable.

“Health services bake the savings into their budgets to please the government, but they do not consider those at the coal face of our health system.

“It is shameful, and it’s time the minister stepped up and stopped being complicit in wage theft.”

A Peter Mac spokesman said it carefully manages resources to provide the “world’s best cancer care” and want to ensure doctors were paid for their work – including unrostered overtime.

“To make sure this happens we ask our doctors to complete their timesheets correctly and get their manager’s approval for overtime,” he said.

“We also want them to take all the time off they’re entitled to, for their own benefit and the benefit of patients.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman said: “We are investing a record $20 billion into our hospitals this year alone – and an additional $8.8 billion multi-year investment in this year’s budget.”