Public meetings held over dire staff of Tararua healthcare
Health New Zealand is reviewing clinics owned by the Tararua Health Group, after staff raised concerns over unsafe workloads and delays.
Six staff at the Pahīatua Medical Centre resigned on Monday from the Tararua Health Group.
Health New Zealand’s central region’s director planning, funding and outcome Geoff Gwyn said the concerns were being taken seriously.
“I think we all understand that health care workers are passionate about what they do and the care they provide for their community, and I know that it would have been a difficult decision for them to resign.”
But he said he still had confidence in the services provided by Tararua Health Group.
“I have confidence in all of the providers that we have working for us until proven otherwise.”
As a result, he told Checkpoint, he was waiting on the findings of a review currently underway at Pahīatua Medical Centre to decide what action needed to be taken.
He said issues were most likely to lie in under-staffing and “clinical management”.
He said an independent general practitioner and practice manager would deliver their findings by the end of the week.
Another audit, he announced, was being done at Dannevirke Hospital, which Tararua Health Group also ran.
Gwyn said an audit had been done in June, with no critical risks raised.
But he said after concerns raised by clinicians, who said they didn’t feel comfortable referring patients there over safety risks, another audit was undertaken on Tuesday.
He denied publicity had influenced the decision.
“It’s [because of] the genuine concerns expressed by clinicians around feeling that they are unable to place patients into that facility.”
He added that he was not aware of any complaints being made about the services at Dannevirke.
Gwyn said to terminate a contract with a provider there had to be a clear risk to patients.
He said the resulting impacts on services for the community would also have to be considered.
Gwyn said he didn’t think there was a conflict of interest with Mark Willis being the PHO’s board director – which managed contracts for health providers – as well as the chief executive of OmniHealth, which owned Tararua Health Group.
“Obviously service delivery is often done by private businesses. General practitioners would be a classic example.”
He argued that what mattered more was managing contracts to ensure safe and quality care.