Queensland's health minister has shut down a "gratuitous scare campaign" after the opposition suggested debt collectors may start chasing current health staff for past payroll mishaps.  Money is still being recovered from the 2010 health payroll bungle, which cost taxpayers an estimated $1.2 billion.  On Wednesday it emerged former Queensland Health staff were being sent more debt recovery letters.  The department's director-general, Michael Walsh, told a budget estimates hearing a $900,000 contract with debt recovery company Australian Receivables was renewed in February.  The contract called for $3.6 million to be recovered from 1116 people.  "All of those people would have received letters," Mr Walsh said.  But Health Minister Cameron Dick stepped in to defend the recovery process after his LNP counterpart John-Paul Langbroek suggested debt collectors might soon be knocking on the doors of current staff.  "It is gratuitous scaremongering, is irresponsible, it is unhelpful and most of all, it is untrue," Mr Dick said.  Only former staff were receiving letters and the overpayment recovery policy had remained unchanged since the LNP was in government, he added.  "Specialist collection agencies were first engaged under the Newman LNP government in February 2014," Mr Dick said.  More than 2600 cases were referred to debt collectors by the Newman government, he said.  "Our rate of referral is about half that of the former LNP government."  The opposition claimed staff were still being overpaid to the tune of nearly $700,000 each fortnight.  Mr Dick said the entire pay run was worth $286 million.  "The fact is that the payroll system that our government uses to pay staff is exactly the same payroll system that the Member for Southern Downs (Lawrence Springborg) left us when the government changed," he said.  Thousands of staff were incorrectly paid when a flawed IBM system went live in 2010 under the former Bligh government.  The bungle, described as a "disaster" by Mr Dick, was later the subject of failed legal action against IBM.
Queensland's health department is chasing $3.7 million worth of overpayments relating to the 2010 payroll bungle, an estimates hearing has been told.