In the ongoing drama and standoffs to do with staffing levels at two of the new Tamworth hospital wards, there is much to comprehend.
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While local MP Kevin Anderson might have no truck with claims that this is all about budgets, the general community has a right to think this is all about the bottom line of finances.
The operational data might be rolled out that this is the benchmark for operations, and it would seem to many onlookers and staff on the ground, and the configuration of the new units, that it is all about money, shifts, resources, and budgets that are the bottom line of rostering more staff in a new layout of the hospital design.
There have been anecdotal horror stories of how some units don’t physically connect with intrinsically aligned others, and that presents a new problem where staffing resources don’t actually work with the old or the current data.
Where once nurses and on-ward staff could monitor and oversee different areas of the wards, it would seem – and we could be wrong here – the new layouts don’t allow what was once before.
So if this issue is based on those logistics and that oversight, then the data will be flawed from the outset, because it doesn’t, and won’t, hold for what is now.
So, what to do?
Well, the parties need to come together in one place and sort this out.
It is essential. The standoff will not work.
There needs to be a compromise, a resolution, where staff are confident and capable of doing their job carefully and with the basic tenet of health care and the exigencies of hospital and health services are met.
To not sit down and discuss this issue is a tragedy for us all and for the future of this hospital service.
Obfuscation and a financial bottom line are fatal for everyone, not least the bureaucrats and the politicians.
The union on Friday said it had asked the Industrial Relations Commission to re-list the dispute over the maternity unit in the hope of a genuine resolution.
The matter is set down for October 13.
The emergency department dispute returns to the commission on October 19.
Let’s hope that this time around there will be some consensus, some compromise that will cut through to the bottom line of patient care, staff wellbeing, and budgetary acceptance.
It is critical.
This is a new hospital failing its patients, its staff and for now, its community.