The ACT government has quietly floated a recruitment freeze at hospitals and health facilities across the territory as senior management continue to deal with an ongoing funding crisis and budget uncertainty.
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An internal letter from ACT Health director-general Nicole Feely to senior executives, obtained by Fairfax Media, reveals a dramatically restructured recruitment strategy with some long vacant positions unlikely to be filled.
The letter also warned some hospital divisions would be required to maintain high standards of care with existing or even reduced staffing levels.
New appointments will now be subject to "significant scrutiny" with Ms Feely to personally approve a list of any proposed changes each week.
Management have been told to make "judicious workforce management" their number one priority and to consider redeploying staff to cover any gaps in service across the health sector.
"As you are all aware, there are constant operational budget pressures in health," Ms Feely said.
"With changes foreshadowed to Commonwealth funding, ACT health must be prudent with regard to resources and cost management.
"The challenge for us all is to do this while continuing to ensure ACT Health provides safe, quality health care services with a continued focus on improving patient outcomes."
According to the letter, recruitment for frontline positions in nursing and medical positions can occur but must be justified and limited to the replacement of existing staff only.
"Recruitment to positions that have remained vacant for long periods or recruitment that increases staff numbers will be subject to significant scrutiny," the letter said.
An ACT Health spokeswoman told Fairfax Media the letter did not reveal a recruitment freeze, but instead, a reminder that workloads must be managed within existing staffing levels.
"The internal memo simply reflects the decision-making process that is necessary in any government directorate or agency to ensure that appropriate business decisions are made around resourcing and the delivery of services in our community," she said.
"This change has been implemented to bring increased oversight and management to recruitment processes."
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said he was concerned by the contents of the letter.
"The community and our hard-working health staff would be right to be very angry with [Chief Minister] Andrew Barr as hospital staff numbers are being frozen and health divisions forced to operate with 'reduced numbers'," he said.
Last week, Mr Barr said states and territories still faced fundamental structural problems for the funding of health service, despite securing an additional $50 million from the federal government for Canberra's hospitals.
The deal would see between $50 million and $55 million extra for Canberra hospitals over three years, clawing back some of the cuts made in the Abbott government's 2014 budget.
"It is a small extra amount for health," Mr Barr said.
ACT Australian Medical Association president Dr Liz Gallagher has already predicted hospital funding as one of the key issue for both sides of politics, with a territory election scheduled for October 15.
"Health is always one of the hot topics in an election and both sides of politics know this is going to be a political issue," she said.
