Uncertainty still rife in area hospitals

NOT HAPPY: Management and staff are at odds over the restructure of local hospital operations.PHOTO/FILE

Staff at Hutt Hospital say the management restructure with Wairarapa Hospital has left them in the dark and created uncertainty about their jobs.

In 2013, the hospitals' management teams were halved in a bid to save costs, and merged into a single executive leadership team.

Just over a year on, staff aren't happy, according to concerns aired at a question and answer session at Hutt Hospital in May.

The executive team which oversees both hospitals and is headed by chief executive officer Graham Dyer, said some things had not worked out.

One staff member said it would help if staff knew the direction the Hutt Valley District Health Board was heading.

"Where are we going? Frontline people are really important in supporting the hospital and we need to know how are you going to engage the people at the coal face?

"Where is the leadership around this?"

Another staff member felt uncertain about sharing services with other hospitals.

"Job security is a big issue for me and many others and we get little to no information.

"If a better offer came along in a position I could be sure about, I would take it."

A third staff member said there were more senior managers now than before.

"We seem to be crippled by inaction and no one wants to make any decisions.

"You said the system would be reviewed after a year and we have not heard about anything happening."

The executive team responded that "some things are working well, others not so well."

"We underestimated some of the complexities which has caused challenges."

It said things were tight financially but it was not expecting frontline service staff to be cut back.

They admitted some of the changes had resulted in a loss of trust and had damaged the culture of the organisations and the team was "stretched".

An evaluation of the restructure was currently under way, they said.

A further four Q and A sessions have been arranged by both DHBs to invite questions and feedback.