Victorian Auditor-General's Office

Appendix A. Testing methods

Contract sampling and testing

A judgemental sampling approach was used to select our sample of ten contracts for testing at each health service. Visiting medical officer (VMO) listings for the period ending 30 June 2011 contained on average 50 VMOs per site, therefore we ensured approximately 20 per cent coverage across the VMO population for each hospital.

The judgemental sampling approach was chosen to ensure a representative selection covering a range of variables, including:

1 Background

1. Background

1.1 Introduction

Medical staff employed in the public health system are either salaried medical officers or contracted private practitioners. The latter are referred to as visiting medical officers (VMO). In 2010–11, public hospitals paid in excess of $139 million to VMOs. Over $108 million, or approximately 78 per cent, of this was spent in rural and regional hospitals.

Audit summary

Independently contracted, fee-for-service visiting medical officers (VMO) are a common feature of medical service delivery in rural and regional health services. Metropolitan and larger regional hospitals have shifted mainly to salaried medical staff. However, the reliance of rural health services on local general practitioners to provide hospital-based services, and the tighter labour market and lower service volumes in these areas, mean contracted VMOs remain the predominant model in rural health services.

Appendix A. Audit Act 1994 section 16—submissions and comments

In accordance with section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994 a copy of this report was provided to the Department of Primary Industries, the Department of Health, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, PrimeSafe and the Victorian Committee of Food Regulators with a request for submissions or comments.

The submission and comments provided are not subject to audit nor the evidentiary standards required to reach an audit conclusion. Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.

2 Regulating agricultural food safety

At a glance

Background

Food safety regulation needs to be underpinned by effective compliance monitoring and enforcement, as well as processes to assess regulatory performance, and to coordinate regulatory activity.

Conclusion

The regulation of agricultural food safety is generally effective, with active, risk-based monitoring of compliance with food safety standards. Improvements are required in some areas, particularly in assessing the performance of the regulators and the impact of regulatory activities.

1 Background

1.1 Victoria’s agricultural food industry

Victoria's agricultural industries produce raw animal and plant-based food products, such as dairy, meat, seafood, eggs and horticultural products. Together, these industries produce food valued at around $9 billion each year, and 26 per cent of the national agricultural production. Over half of Victoria’s contribution is from the dairy, beef and horticulture industries with the state's largest export earner, the dairy industry, providing around 87 per cent of Australia’s dairy exports.

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