No end to Health's sick payroll problems Almost 150 Queensland Health payroll staff positions have been cut this financial year and voluntary redundancies could continue until hundreds more are gone. Almost 100 full-time equivalent positions were cut from the Health payroll offices across the state before Christmas and 40.67 full-time equivalent positions will go by June 30 in a round of voluntary redundancies. The latest round of cuts will reduce Queensland Health payroll staff to 832 full-time equivalent positions, with Health Minister Lawrence Springborg citing the number of staff who had to be hired to handle the bungled IT system. A spokesman for Mr Springborg said the government would continue offering voluntary redundancies whenever they could, but did not give a deadline. "While it remains a mess we need all these people, otherwise people don't get paid," he said. They're doing a fantastic job because what was supposed to be the most wonderful and exciting computer system on the planet, they're doing its work for it. When asked what the right size for the payroll staff would be, the spokesman replied the education department was of similar size and had about 150 people employed in its payroll section. However, he noted Queensland Health payroll staff had a more complex job than their education counterparts as they dealt with shift workers and penalty rates. "This is why we have to have awards simplification, to take the complexity out of it," he said. The spokesman said people had to be installed in jobs at the payroll offices at the expense of other jobs within Queensland Health. Instead of being able to provide frontline nursing personnel or doctors, it's obligatory we spend the money on what were unfunded positions within the payroll. "Every time we are able to reduce the numbers it provides more capacity to use the funding as front-line funding," he said. Queensland Health's payroll system employed 980 full-time equivalent positions last year. The inquiry into the bungled system, which resulted in the overpayment and underpayment of some Queensland Health staff for years, has been extended until July 31. "It is still a huge number of people to have involved in producing a payroll," the spokesman said. "The fact is, as we make improvements and as we make more of the patches, every couple of months a window opens for them to make adjustments to the program," he said. And every time that happens they produce improvements and often that means that every time you need less manual fixes.