Staff Impacts

The goal of the integrated health centre is to meet the long- term health needs of the people of Golden Bay. The plan is to create a purpose-designed integrated facility that will attract professionals to provide team-based preventative, primary (GP), acute, maternity, palliative and residential aged care.

Central to the focus of the Golden Bay Community Health is creating a new way of working that will attract and retain health professionals.

There has been concern about what this means for the staff currently working for the Golden Bay‚s three health facilities that would be integrated.

The business case, which is still being refined, shows some savings can be made on staff numbers. Savings can be achieved through the efficiencies of having everyone located on one site. That means one kitchen, common waiting areas, efficiencies in cleaning, maintenance, reception, ordering, etc.

The interim management group knows it is the people who work at the community hospital, the medical centre and at Joan Whiting rest home who make health care in Golden Bay so special. The consumers of those services all say repeatedly the levels of care by staff are simply wonderful and they make what can be very difficult periods that much easier.

The group is being very careful about planning how staff would transition from their current roles and organisations. It's one of the aspects taking time.

All of the financial analysis is based on staff being paid current rates of pay. The financial assumptions in the business case for integration are based on the nurses' multi employer collective agreements, which are the basis of existing employment conditions for most of the nursing staff employed in Golden Bay.

GPs would become salaried employees, rather than running businesses that employ nurses and other staff.

It is expected many people who would work for the centre will have similar roles to what they have now, though we predict it will be more enjoyable because they will have more opportunities to work together.

Community hospital charge nurse manager Alexia Russell supports integration. "Bringing nurses together in an integrated facility is not about nurses having to carry out each other‚s work or roles; it‚s about collegial support and the sharing of specialist nursing skills and knowledge."