Melbourne Health looks at outsourcing jobs - The Australian

JOBS of emergency department assistants, cleaners and security staff may be outsourced under a review by Melbourne Health.

The health organisation, which includes the Royal Melbourne Hospital, says it is reviewing support services across its 27 sites to see if cost savings can be made.

In a letter to staff it says no decision has been made to outsource services yet and the top priority is safety.

"Melbourne Health is facing significant financial pressure and needs to make some significant savings across the organisation to ensure we can continue to deliver our clinical services to patients," the letter says.

Melbourne Health said staff would be kept informed as services - including cleaning, clinical and emergency department assistants, patient service assistants and security - were reviewed.

Staff are expected to be told of the outcome in mid July.

The news comes as a Fairfax report suggests the Victorian government will spend $930 million from 2011 to 2014 on outsourcing public sector jobs to temporary workers as it makes 4200 public sector jobs redundant.

Opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Natalie Hutchins said the move did not make economic sense.

"It's not sustainable for the government to continue to do this and it's an outrageous response to do this with Victorian taxpayers' money," she told reporters.

Premier Denis Napthine said funding used for temporary workers and contractors in the public sector was tens of millions of dollars less than what the previous Labor government spent on such contracts.

He said figures for the 2012/13 financial year show spending on temporary workers was below the amount allocated.

Melbourne Health announced in December it would scale back operations following federal government funding cuts, forcing more than 700 patients to wait longer for elective surgery.