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Money to employ seven clinical support officers (CSOs), to free nurses from paperwork so they can attend to patients, has come from the NSW Government, it says.

The Greater Western did not explain yesterday why it still needed to find two more officers to make up the seven apportioned to Dubbo Base Hospital. But its spokesperson said the NSW Government had “committed $176 million across the next four years” for the employment of CSOs in the State.

The office of NSW health minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday confirmed that 15 CSOs had been allocated to Greater Western, with two positions “still vacant” after the Government came under fire for not yet employing the 500 CSOs it promised on March 30.

After the release of an audit last week of the first stage of Caring Together: Health Action Plan for NSW, the Government’s $485 million response to the Garling report, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that in seven months only 132 officers were on the job.

State Opposition spokesperson for health Jillian Skinner slammed the leadership of Ms Tebbutt and accused the Government of adding to its list of “broken health promises”.

Two area health services, Sydney South West and Sydney West, were reported to have not yet recruited a single CSO. On the other hand, the Greater Western had found five officers, who started work at Dubbo Base Hospital on October 12.

“Greater Western AHS (Area Health Service) are currently in the process of recruiting to the remaining two clinical support officer positions and they will be advertised externally in the coming month,” its spokesperson said yesterday.

“There are no budget concerns regarding the recruitment of the clinical support officers for Dubbo Base Hospital, with money allocated from the NSW Government to employ seven clinical support officers in the hospital.”

Ms Tebbutt’s spokesperson said there had been more than 3500 applications received State-wide for the 500 positions.

“We have nearly finished recruiting for the 500 clinical support officer positions across the State just six months after we commenced the Caring Together process,” she said.

“The Opposition has not promised one new nurse, new hospital bed or doctor - and continues to focus on undermining confidence in our health system.”

As reported by Fairfax Digital