Fong turns down pay rise

Health Department director-general Neale Fong has announced he will not accept an increase in his salary, saying he felt the health system would need to improve before a pay rise was appropriate.

Dr Fong attracted controversy last year when he took the 7 per cent pay rise, due to all senior public servants, which boosted his paypacket by $36,980 to $565,272.

The full text of an announcement from the office of the Health Minister, Jim McGinty, is pasted below

The Director General of the Health Department, Dr Neale Fong, has advised Health Minister Jim McGinty that he will not accept an increase in his salary this year.

Dr Fong will not access today's automatic salary increase for senior public service office holders awarded by the Salaries and Allowances Tribunal.

"I want to send a clear message to all my staff that while there has been tremendous progress in our health reform program, there is so much more to do," he said.

"We can and will do better in reducing elective surgery waiting lists and implementing new initiatives to relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments."

Dr Fong has advised Mr McGinty that he felt executive pay rises - including his own - were not a priority at the moment and that these funds were better directed at services and achieving a greater number of the new targets set for the system.

Health Minister Jim McGinty said Dr Fong had advised him that he felt a pay rise was not appropriate until the health system had achieved a greater number of its key targets.