Ms ROSOL – I would like to ask some questions about non‑emergency patient transport, so the pre‑booked transport services that transfer patients between hospitals or discharged people to aged care facilities. How much did the Department of Health spend on privately contracted non‑emergency patient transport (NEPT) in 2024‑25?
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister, and my apologies, these align with the contract years rather than the financial years, so if you bear with me. In October 2023 to September 2024 we spent $4,015,861 on NEPT in the private sector, and from October 2024 to March 2025 we were at $2.385 million.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you. I’m curious because I know that the department employs staff in non‑emergency patient transport. Are there patterns to when private services are used? For example, days of the week, times of the week? Are there times when employed Department of Health employees would be able to do that if they were given overtime? That’s a huge amount of money to be paying to private transport services.
What type of employment is used for the Department of Health non‑emergency patient transport staff? Are they employed as day workers, as shift workers? What could be changed so that we could reduce the need to use private services here, and use the staff that we have, I assume, to have a much cheaper service?
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister. We use a mix of Ambulance Tasmania staff and the private providers. The usage is determined on a case‑by‑case basis, with hospitals intersecting with the dispatch area within Ambulance Tasmania about what units are available.
It will depend on, for instance, if we need to move a large number of patients for surgery from the North West Regional Hospital or the Launceston General Hospital, then we’d be using a large number of NEPT providers in that circumstance. It does depend. We do revisit the model on a regular basis, but the issue with having 100 per cent of it in‑house, if you like, is that there will be times where we’re not using the staffing component that we have, because there isn’t the need on those particular days, and there would be need on other days. We try to balance the load across the system using the private providers, such as Private Ambulance Tasmania, and many have been in place in Tasmania now for a very long period of time.
We wouldn’t advocate that we insource it 100 per cent, because it does provide us with the ability to balance the load depending on when we need the patient transport to occur.
Ms ROSOL – Going back to the non-emergency patient transport. I asked a fairly specific question there and I think it got lost in things and I didn’t get an answer. The Ambulance Tas staff who staffed that, are they employed as day workers or as shift workers, and is there the capacity for them to be flexible and do more, so that we don’t have to rely so much on the private services?
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister. I’m convinced that there are seven day workers, but I’m not sure of the span of hours, if you like. We’re just finding out the span of hours on each day.
Ms ROSOL – Do you want me to put it on notice?
CHAIR – Do you have a second question?
Ms ROSOL – I do have a second question. It is a different topic.
Mr WEBSTER – I’ve got the answer. There’s seven days, but we actually have an on‑call and for the evenings. It’s a mix of permanent and casual staff so we can actually have that level of flexibility.
