197 Hospital Jobs May Go
Illawarra Mercury
Thursday November 26, 1998
A consultant's report earmarking 197 jobs to be slashed at Wollongong Hospital has staff and unions up in arms.
They say there are already too few staff at the hospital, with previous staff cuts and the effects of natural attrition having cut a swathe through departments across the board.
The consultant's report, which only went to the Illawarra Area Health Service board this week, has yet to be endorsed. And according to chief executive officer Ian Southwell, it may not be.
But staff are understandably nervous, according to the Illawarra's Health and Research Employees' Association representative Peter Mylan.
The Mercury understands the report suggests jobs could be cut from areas including theatres, accident and emergency and intensive care. Maintenance and pathology staff could also be hit.
It's believed the consultant pointed to the transfer of staff from Port Kembla to Wollongong Hospital earlier this year as a reason for the excess staff numbers.
According to the report, these extra staff were expected to disappear over time through natural attrition, but the consultant found they had instead been replaced as they left.
Mr Mylan said the report's findings would be announced to senior managers and unions on Tuesday, and he feared that if the board had not yet endorsed the consultant's suggested cuts, it soon would. He said he could not see how the cuts could be justified.
``Any further cuts will leave staff under even more pressure than they are now."
He warned cuts would also result in reduced services to the community.
Mr Southwell confirmed the report include a suggestion that 197 jobs should go, but he said nothing had been decided. He also denied any staff would be retrenched.
The area health service chief said the report was commissioned because of worries about the volume of work the hospital was doing for the cost involved.
He said the report was merely a tool and final figures had yet to be decided. If jobs were to go, they would be by natural attrition. He said he did not favour redundancies - even voluntary ones.
``The board has merely noted the report at this stage, and has now asked management to work through issues. There's no way as many as 197 jobs will go, because adjustments still have to be made."
Mr Southwell said some of the assumptions in the report were wrong for Wollongong and would have to be adjusted.
``The final number will be significantly lower, and I don't think it will be anything like that number."
© 1998 Illawarra Mercury