Cutting the waste in health and putting the money back into frontline services is the focus of a Health Waste Watch forum in Brisbane next Thursday, September 1.

LNP Waste Watch Shadow Minister Fiona Simpson and LNP Health Shadow Minister Mark McArdle have invited residents and health workers to have their say about how to cut the waste in Queensland Health so more doctors, nurses and allied services can be funded to deliver better health care.

The State Opposition today blasted the Bligh Government yet again over their mismanagement of our public health system after reports Minister Wilson and Queensland Health had secretly directed doctors and surgeons to restrict Queensland outpatients to just two hospital visits.

Shadow Minister for Health Mark McArdle said the fact that over 60,000 extra Queenslanders have been put on the specialist outpatient waiting list since Anna Bligh became Premier proves her government have grossly mismanaged our public health system and were once again trying to cover it up.

The veteran minister yesterday told The Courier-Mail that all the evidence showed that the bureaucrats who signed the Government up to the contract were to blame for its failure.

Mr Schwarten also struck out at faceless Labor MPs who have engaged in a whispering campaign questioning why he and Health Minister Paul Lucas were not sacked over the scandal.

``Anybody who has suggested that hasn't had the guts to say it to my face,'' he said. ``I assume it is either mischief or made up.''

Mr Schwarten's comment will further fuel the finger-pointing and soul-searching that the Government has been  unsuccessfully trying to avoid over the payroll fiasco, which has been branded the worst failure of public administration in the state's history.

Another 11,500 pay corrections are yet to be processed despite the huge resources thrown by the department into fixing the problem.

Health Minister Paul Lucas claimed significant progress had been made, however nurses said the reality was painfully different.

Tens of thousands of health workers have been robbed of their correct pay since the department launched its $40 million SAP/Workbrain system in March.

Millions more in taxpayer money has been spent trying to fix the system but, despite that, the complex system continued to falter.

Read the full story here.

ALMOST 30 nurses didn't get paid this fortnight by Queensland Health as the payroll crisis heads towards its seventh month.

A total of 27 people reported they had received no pay - indicating a very slight improvement on the previous pay cycle when 31 people indicated they hadn't been paid.

The total number of adjustments in the backlog has dropped to 15,000. At the height of the pay crisis, 35,000 adjustments needed to be made.

Queensland Nurses Union assistant secretary Beth Mohle said workers were sick of the problem.

Newspaper article from: Courier Mail Friday 27/08/10   Page: 11 by Anna Caldwell

TAXPAYERS will fork out almost $350,000 for two international computer software experts to work on the bungled Queensland Health payroll system...The Government's decision to bring the pair to Brisbane comes on top of Infor analysts already working on the project for computer giant IBM, which was contracted to implement the system.  A $40 million system that doesn't work and still taxpayers are paying extra... See the full Courier-Mail article here.

The executor of her estate, Richard Oliver, said Mrs Wright had been paid five times since her death on March 23, despite repeated calls to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to stop her pay.

That is the latest admission in a series of blunders to hit the system, which has been plagued with problems since it was brought online in March.

Former Queensland Health workers have also received pays under the new SAP/WorkBrain payroll and rostering system.

The Minister for Public Works has confessed the Bligh Labor Government often has to amend contracts, after they were signed, because the government’s own requirements were left out, the Opposition said today.

LNP spokeswoman for Public Works Jann Stuckey said the confession was astounding and proved the whole Queensland Health payroll program was mismanaged from the start.