AN INTERESTING little story grabbed my attention this week. A story which might well have gone unnoticed amongst other news of an extremely disturbing nature. But nonetheless a story worthy of attention.

Sadly, it's a story which once again reflects on how some in power devalue the work of people in the healthcare system.

It appears that the Queensland Government are intent on recovering every last cent of alleged overpayments to staff, in the aftermath of the Qld Health payroll debacle. On the surface, one would applaud efforts to recover funds which are so urgently required to be put back into the system. But the Government appears to be selective in their debt recovery procedures.

Current Qld Health employees are exempt from recovery action, so it has been reported. Instead, the Government has set the debt recovery agencies on those former staff; either those who have retired or were sacked in the great purge by the Newman Government.

It might be OK if the system wasn't in such a mess. Because, although the debt collectors are going after former staff, no one is quite sure exactly what these people owe...if in fact they were actually overpaid.

It has emerged this week that debt collectors have been pursuing alleged overpayments, which upon closer examination, proved incorrect. In some cases, those pursued were actually owed unpaid wages. In another case, a retired nurse was alleged to have been overpaid for a period after she had left Qld Health. Her bank account records certainly proved that she was in fact, not paid the amount claimed to have been mistakingly paid to her.

In my opinion, 99.9% of healthcare staff are undervalued as it is. They have to put up with violent abuse in emergency wards, administrators who often have no clue, bureaucrats relentlessly pursuing unrealistic spending cuts and all while not being paid anywhere near enough for the work they do. And now this!

I just wonder if the government wouldn't be better off just ruling a line under this whole ugly incident and moving on. One has to seriously question the cost of pursuing these alleged overpayments, especially when the system used to calculate these amounts has been found to be completely unreliable.

If Labor are that concerned about the financial consequences of the payroll debacle; which was, after all, of their making, then perhaps they should consider selling a few party assets and putting those funds into the state's coffers. An option I find more palatable than setting the dogs on healthcare workers.

Perhaps if political parties were made financially liable for the absolute screamers they commit when in government, there would be less of them.