Pahiatua medical staff calling for quick change as safety concerns mount
The Primary Health Organisation will install an independent manager at the Pahiatua Medical Centre, where staff are threatening to resign en masse next week, due to under-resourcing.
On Thursday, nurse practitioner Victoria Perry told RNZ Checkpoint that failure to replace departing staff had put preventative screenings for bowel, breast and prostate cancer a year behind schedule, while regular patients were waiting three months for appointments.
She feared people would die, if the clinic could not provide even its most basic of services and follow-up tests for its 5000 patients.
Staff have called for the PHO – which contacts the clinic for its services – to intervene and chief executive Tony Wai has told Checkpoint that intervention will begin with new management.
“The situation has clearly escalated, which we’re treating very seriously,” he said.
The Primary Health Organisation will install an independent manager at the Pahiatua Medical Centre, where staff are threatening to resign en masse next week, due to under-resourcing.
On Thursday, nurse practitioner Victoria Perry told RNZ Checkpoint that failure to replace departing staff had put preventative screenings for bowel, breast and prostate cancer a year behind schedule, while regular patients were waiting three months for appointments.
She feared people would die, if the clinic could not provide even its most basic of services and follow-up tests for its 5000 patients.
Staff have called for the PHO – which contacts the clinic for its services – to intervene and chief executive Tony Wai has told Checkpoint that intervention will begin with new management.
“The situation has clearly escalated, which we’re treating very seriously,” he said.
“Our immediate priority is ensuring the people of Pahiatua continue to have access to safe primary care, but equally, we need to understand and address the concerns that have brought the staff to this point.
“It’s the providers’ job to keep staff safe – it is our role to ensure they continue to maintain minimum services, and continuity of care for patients and the community.
“First and foremost, we need to address a number of those concerns that the staff have raised. We do plan to have an independent manager go in – we’ve instructed the current manager that we would be putting our own manager in there to rectify some of the issues that have been raised in staff complaints.
“These are qualified managers coming in alongside our team.”
While this was the first step, Wai acknowledged staffing levels at the clinic also needed to be addressed, but could give no solid timeline around that.
“We will be getting more clinical staff – that is an important thing to do,” he said. “Workforce is challenging and there are a range of different options that the existing management are looking to bring in clinical resources.
“We see that co-inciding with our plan, as we address some of the issues. We do know there are vacancies being sought at the moment and being actively recruited for, which the existing manager has let us know.
“We’re expecting them to flow through when they flow through.”
Wai said permanent staffing needed to be recruited for.
“That is happening, but I can’t give you any exact definitive times until we work through that process.”
Wai said other clinics around New Zealand faced similar challenges, but had adopted “virtual support or virtual therapy” to help fill the gaps.
“We see we need to get it to a minimum standard and, in this situation, because we’ve been brought in at the time we were brought in, we’re having to act now to remediate this.
“Those operational pressures need to be looked after and that is why we’re going in there immediately with immediate action up front.
“Having a manager in there will address those things that the previous management had not rectified. We are working through that and it will happen next week.”