The Rural Doctors Association of NSW (RDANSW) and Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) have welcomed a recommendation from an independent review of the South East Regional Hospital (SERH) at Bega, that a new approach to leadership be adopted there to include senior doctors as well as nurses and allied health professionals.
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The review was triggered largely by concerns regarding the decision by hospital management not to renew the contract of a local orthopaedic surgeon Chris Phoon, despite there being a significant waiting list for patients needing orthopaedic surgery and only three orthopaedic surgeons working at the hospital.
“It is well known that there has been a strong need to improve the management culture at both the new SERH, and also at its predecessor, the Bega District Hospital, for many years,” RDAA CEO Peta Rutherford said.
“The decision by hospital management not to renew the contract of Dr Phoon was really the tip of a much larger iceberg, and the catalyst for this important review.
“The independent review found that, while staff worked exceedingly hard to ensure the transition to the new hospital was safe, elements of the commissioning process were poorly addressed, including in the area of clinical workforce requirements.
“The review emphasised a significant need to improve the management and governance culture at the hospital, while recognising that elements of this were already underway.
“We particularly welcome the review finding that ‘with respect to leadership, a fundamentally different approach is required which broadens the base of the leadership team beyond executive management to include senior doctors, nurses and allied health’.”
Among other things, the review has recommended the creation of an updated clinical workforce plan for SERH; a review and modernisation of models of care at the hospital; and creation within the clinical governance system of a process for the systematic analysis of available benchmarking data.
“Finalisation of this review provides NSW Health and the leadership team at SERH with a critical opportunity to create a better approach to clinical governance at the hospital, to ensure that doctors, nurses and other health professionals at the hospital are better valued and retained, and that a strong approach to medical workforce planning is adopted there,” Ms Rutherford said.
“RDAA and RDANSW would be pleased to work closely with the leadership team at SERH to put in place a leadership culture at the hospital that better supports the doctors and other health professionals working there, as well as the region's patients, well into the future.”
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