Staff,servicesassurancessought

• Published date: 05 April 2024
• Publication title: Oamaru Mail

Despite being a public facility, the hospital is owned by the council and run by Waitaki District Health Services Ltd (WDHSL), but being disconnected from the national health system has led to clinical and financial instability over recent years

Last Tuesday, councillors made the decision in a public excluded meeting to enter negotiations with Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora to potentially return operations. It was announced to the public on Tuesday.

WDHSL joint interim chief executive Hugh Kettlewell said time was of the essence, as they planned to have an offer ready for councillors soon.

If all went well, operations could change hands by next financial year, he said.

There were a few points WDHSL would be sticking to during negotiations, most importantly that staff, staffing levels and health services not be adversely affected.

‘‘I don’t see us moving from this at all.’’

The decision made by councillors was ‘‘fantastic’’ and an HNZ-run hospital would be more reliable, he said.

Last year the hospital closed its emergency department three times due to staff shortages.

Mr Kettlewell said the hospital had been able to stabilise nursing staff numbers by achieving pay parity last year, but getting doctors was a big problem.

There were only so many to go around and it was hard for a small hospital in a rural town to attract them.

If a doctor did want to come to Oamaru there were a lot of processes they had to go through, such as getting licensed to practice here if from overseas.

‘‘That’s incredibly time consuming.

‘‘Te Whatu Ora do it all the time. They have whole departments for the recruiting process.’’

He did not expect the hospital to have a full roster if HNZ took control, as that was a national problem, but it would make it easier.

In terms of recruiting, the deal could only be positive.

They would also be able to more easily move staff...