Gisborne Hospital Report - Health and Disability Commissioner

Gisborne Hospital 1999 – 2000
PSA Testing Procedures
work reconfigured internal operations. The directors gave approval for
management to progress negotiations with a preferred tenderer. Negotiations
continued until May 2000 when the preferred tenderer withdrew. The
proposal to contract out laboratory services lapsed.
Loss of laboratory business
5.22 Te Puia Hospital formerly belonged to THL but was returned to the ownership
and administration of Ngati Porou Hauora (NPH). In October 2000 NPH
dropped the laboratory services provided by THL for an independent outside
laboratory because THL’s laboratory was taking too long to return specimens.
In some instances the Tairawhiti Healthcare laboratory was taking up to six
weeks to return specimens, and in the NPH’s view that was unsatisfactory.
Staff training
5.23 Despite the fact that the 1998 IANZ report recommended more resources be
made available there was no training plan for laboratory staff instituted. Staff
therefore had to ask for training opportunities and these were frequently
declined. Staff perceived that they do not receive enough training.
Management and communication
5.24 Relationships between management and staff in the biochemistry section of
the laboratory at Gisborne Hospital had been under pressure at least since the
restructuring of 1998. The effect of the restructuring was described in the
1998 IANZ Accreditation Report.
“These issues [restructuring, appointment of new manager,
redundancies, replacement of pathologist] have had an impact on staff
morale, throughput of samples, quality control aspects and general
maintenance of the quality management system.
The staff have been working under somewhat difficult circumstances
and it was felt by the technical experts that given the above mentioned
problems, the laboratory has been hard pushed to cope with the
resources currently provided. All departments are somewhat short
staffed and this is reflected in the failure to address items such as are
documented in the corrective action requests.”
5.25 The way in which the restructuring was proposed and implemented caused a
breakdown in trust between staff and management. The key reason for the
restructuring given by the then Group Manager (Hospital) (Mr Mike Grant)
was to address the problem of all the on-call work being shared by a group of
six staff. Mr Sharman’s report on staffing dated 31 July 2000 states that the
on-call work is now shared by seven staff and the cost is not significantly
different to that before restructuring. The restructuring did, however, result in
staff losses and the consequent loss of GP contracts.
6. PROBLEMS OF A SMALL AND ISOLATED LABORATORY
162