WA union slams privatisation plans

Patients at the new Fiona Stanley Hospital won't be affected by plans to privatise
certain services, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has vowed.
But the WA Secretary of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) has
slammed the "patronising" suggestion, saying Mr Barnett doesn't understand how
hospitals work.
The state government plans on outsourcing various services at the hospital to the
company Serco, which currently provides services to hospitals in the UK and manages
Australia's immigration centres.
The LHMU launched its campaign against any privatisation of services at Fiona
Stanley Hospital on Wednesday, which will include bombarding 100,000 voters in key
Liberal-held marginal seats with automated phone calls.
The union also took out a full-page advertisement in the West Australian newspaper
calling the hospital the "Fiona Stanley Prison".
Mr Barnett called the advertisement "totally offensive", saying it was an insult to
the former Australian of the Year, Ms Stanley and the people who will work at the
hospital.
He said the government was not privatising the hospital and all medical services
will be provided by paid public servants.
"All the doctors, all the nurses, all the associated medical services. What we're
looking at is contracting out to Serco the provisions of other services," he told
reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Barnett added: "The point is for the patients, the people who really matter,
their services are provided by the government through the public sector employees in
a public hospital."
However, LHMU state secretary Dave Kelly said Mr Barnett was naive to think patients
would not be affected by any plans to privatise services as hospital staff work
likes a team.
"This idea that what they're privatising at Fiona Stanley is inappropriate or
trivial work, it shows he doesn't understand how a hospital runs," he told AAP.
"It's incredibly insulting to the staff who run our hospitals. It's incredibly
patronising. It's like saying an AFL teams can run onto the field without any
trainers or training staff."
Mr Kelly said the services which will be privatised include sterilisation, patient
record management, ward clerks, orderlies, cleaning and catering.
The $2 billion Fiona Stanley Hospital in the south Perth suburb of Murdoch is due to
be completed in 2014. It will have more than 780 beds.