Doctors still owed pay from May
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Some doctors working at Orange Hospital have not been paid for months. (ABC: Brad Markham)
The Orange Medical Staff Council has revealed some doctors working at a hospital in New South Wales' central west have not been paid for work they did several months ago.
The health council says a number of surgeons and visiting doctors who worked at Orange Hospital are still owed wages from "May and June this year".
The council's chairwoman, Dr Ruth Arnold, says it is concerning busy doctors are having to "chase" outstanding accounts.
She says it hopes a review of the Greater Western Area Health Service will resolve the payment problems.
"We understand the Area Health Service is in quite a degree of financial difficulty at the moment because of the funding that it is, or is not, receiving," she said.
"The Health Department has recently undertaken a review. We are awaiting the outcome of that."
She says some doctors at the hospital have been payed on time.
"Not all doctors are paid under the same system. There are some doctors paid as a salary arrangement, where those payments have been going through much more regularly and on time," she said.
The Federal Member for Calare, John Cobb, says New South Wales Health Minister John Della Bosca must intervene to resolve the issue.
"It is an enormous issue and you have to assume it's not just bad administration, it is bad accounting by those who pay the tab in Sydney," she said.
"It's only May since we had a new Budget. As of June this year, they should have had plenty of money to pay their bills."
Mr Cobb says he is worried it could stop some of the unpaid visiting doctors coming to the region again.
"I know very well that most of those doctors come out of Sydney. It's not just Orange the come to, but Orange is obviously the major centre," he said.
"We are very fortunate in Orange having well over 80 specialists, but we need them. The surgeons, obviously that's where lives are saved."
The Area Health Service is encouraging doctors who believe they have outstanding accounts to contact it.
The general manager of the Greater Western Area Health Service, Narelle Davis, says she is looking the matter.
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell says he is amazed and also worried by the news.
"It's incredibly disturbing that with almost 40 per cent of the state's Budget allocated to health, doctors in the central west aren't being paid."
Last month it was revealed that the same area health service had not paid bills to butchers, meaning meat was taken off the menu at several hospitals.
