Serco : welcomes Audit Report

Serco Australia has welcomed the Auditor General's report into non-clinical services at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

The report has found that Serco's services are being delivered in line with expectations, despite there being 22 percent more patients than expected since the hospital's opening. This means that the WA Government is achieving the $550 million in savings that was identified by Treasury when the contract was signed in 2011.

Serco Australia CEO Mark Irwin said the report outlined a contract that puts non-clinical services at FSH under more scrutiny than any other hospital in Australia, with 1000 reporting obligations, including 460 key performance indicators (KPIs).

'We welcome these performance measures which allow us to push efficiency and service excellence, and deliver the millions of dollars in savings despite a significant increase in patient numbers,' Mr Irwin said.

'The Auditor General has recognised that our services are being delivered at a high standard at FSH, and that we have worked above and beyond the contract to ensure the smooth running of the hospital and focus on patient care. This is testament to the 1000 Western Australians who work for Serco at FSH, and I hope ends once and for all unnecessary, untrue and vitriolic attacks on our staff who are going about their everyday work.

'The report rightly points out that no other public hospital has comparable metrics or data, without which it is not possible to benchmark performance of these other facilities.'

Mr Irwin also welcomed the Auditor General's recommendations around the value of reporting and the timely resolution of contract disputes, some of which remain unresolved since the opening of the hospital.

'These are key areas of the contract that can be further improved. We have outlined further savings with simple changes to reporting, and removing some services that may have seemed reasonable in 2011 which provide very little utility to the hospital in 2017. Likewise, the need for a mechanism to resolve contract disputes that have the potential to undermine the outstanding work by the State and Serco as we look to the future.'

The report also clarifies a number of mistruths regarding payments. In particular it confirms that Serco was paid $52 million less than the original contract forecast because of the delay in opening the hospital, a period during which Serco continued to work on testing hospital equipment and systems, and working with the State to enable an effective opening.

For further information please contact Serco:
Tim Evans, Head of Media and Government (Australia) +61 (0) 409 389 358

About Serco
Serco is a leading provider of public services. Our customers are governments or others operating in the public sector. We gain scale, expertise and diversification by operating internationally across five sectors and four geographies: Defence, Justice & Immigration, Transport, Health and Citizen Services, delivered in UK & Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.