Goodbye to a dream job

A job at Masterton Hospital as an occupational therapist was all Harish Kala had hoped for, but in the space of two years it has deteriorated from a realised dream to disillusionment, discontent, anger and finally the decision "to jump rather than be pushed." He left yesterday.
He has taken up a job at Auckland Hospital as an occupational therapist in the acute wards.
Trained in India, he completed his Masters degree in Sydney before moving to New Zealand. Mr Kala is sad to have to go to Auckland, as he and his family had wanted to stay in Wairarapa, but the restructuring of staff in his department, Allied Health, got the better of him.
OT (Occupational Therapy) staff numbers have been cut from six to four and the 1.8 assistant OT positions (two people) have been totally dropped.
"I've worked in many jobs and have also been involved in workforce reshaping but never with such bad communication as at Masterton Hospital where staff have been left wondering for so long what is going to happen to them."
He said having to work alongside highly-stressed colleagues, many of whom were already overworked even before the suggested cuts were announced last December, has had a huge toll on many staff.
"We were probably naive but we thought that if we presented our case to management about our workload, they would listen. It just hasn't happened."
"I speak for so many when I say they feel ignored despite presenting many submissions on how the department needed to run. They feel the new hospital is more important and it seems the staff are secondary."
He said many of his colleagues have family and mortgages and ties to Wairarapa and the hospital is really their only place of employment so they dare not speak out.
"We were a team of five OTs and were all very busy. We each coped differently with the stress and many came in at weekends just to keep our heads above water. Imagine our distress when we learnt just recently that we were going to work with one less OT and the two assistants would be made redundant."
In Wards three and four where Mr Kala worked, there were 10 to 12 inpatients plus a varying number of outpatients who came in for a range of rehabilitation needs.
"Some need physical exercises, some need help with modifying their houses and others assessed for daily living outside of hospital. It is not a service that can be rushed and we are often dealing with people at their most vulnerable."
He was also involved with "day rehab" whereby people would come in for a few hours for help in their daily lives.
This service was scrapped in April as part of the new hospital's regime.
Also scrapped are the OT assistants.
Mr Kala believes Masterton Hospital will be one of the few hospitals operating without OT assistants.
"They are an incredibly valued part of the rehabilitation workforce. The work is skilled and varied they have their own professional network and to say they aren't qualified enough, as management have indicated, is an affront. We needed them for their people skills, keeping equipment in order and general maintenance of the ward environment."
A similar group of workers at the hospital, five part-time health care assistants, have been made redundant.
Meantime, the remaining staff in Allied Health are facing an uncertain future.
Their job descriptions are being rewritten, and they need to reapply for their positions.
There are three other areas where the future workforce is not yet confirmed.
They are the clerical staff, maternity and clinical nurse specialist roles.