Nandor Tanczos, Hikoi for Health Coalition spokesman

The massive downgrading of maternity services at Whakatāne Hospital is just the tip of the iceberg. Investigations have revealed a hospital in crisis, with dedicated and highly competent staff struggling to keep servicing the community within a dysfunctional system.

When news first broke that obstetrics and gynaecology services were closing, the public was told that it was just a recruitment issue and that secondary maternity services (obstetrics) would resume in 12 months. After speaking to several staff within the hospital, it is clear that there are far bigger issues that have led to this closure, and which threaten other departments. The community has a right to know, and to make our voices heard.

Recruitment is absolutely an issue, with a shortage of obstetricians globally, but more importantly the recruitment process at Whakatāne Hospital is a shambles. Several departments have chronic staff shortages, but they get almost no recruitment support. When they manage to find applicants, getting contracts signed off by the bureaucracy in Tauranga can take up to ten months. The coalition organising Saturday’s Hikoi for Health has heard of multiple examples of great people being recruited by local senior staff, but by the time their contracts are approved they have moved on.

Other applicants have become so frustrated by the lengthy delays in getting a permanent contract that they end up applying through a recruitment agency and being taken on as a locum, at a higher cost and with numerous other disadvantages. Senior staff have complained at being unable to identify where the hold ups are, with decision-making unclear to locals. What is clear is that recruitment for Whakatāne takes a back seat to Tauranga.

This is made worse by the lack of a local general manager for the hospital, someone who has oversight over the whole hospital, a local perspective, and who can advocate within Te Whatu Ora for Whakatāne’s needs.

Even when people are recruited, staff shortages mean that doctors and nurses are constantly under stress and exhausted, leading to people leaving. The Coalition understands that of the four obstetricians who recently resigned, leading to the closure of the unit, three had been recruited from the USA within the last couple of years. They moved country, relocated families, bought houses here, only to move on within a short space of time. This is indicative of a dysfunctional working environment and poor management from Tauranga and our coalition hopes that those people will tell their tale so the local community can understand what is going wrong at the hospital.

On top of all of that, succession planning seems to be almost non-existent. Te Whatu Ora had plenty of advance warning of at least one of the obstetricians’resignations but didn’t fill the position, leading to gaps in the roster and only patchy coverage since last year. In another department a doctor coming up for retirement gave a year’s notice, but the hospital sat on its hand rather than proactively planning for it. There are enough cases that it seems to be a systemic issue. Overseas recruitment is vital to keep the hospital staffed, and at least 6 months is needed to allow to visas to be approved and families to relocate, so succession planning is a necessity. The lack of dedicated recruitment staff also means that silly mistakes get made. Recently several new staff had to be put on hold because they had applied for the wrong visa, following faulty advice.

Some of the problems are not new but recent moves to a more centralised system have made it worse, with Whakatāne staff having little autonomy to make decisions about what is best for our community. Added to that is cost cutting driven from Wellington, including the downgrading of the back-office functions that front line staff rely on to do their job.

I am deeply disturbed at what has come to light since the closure of Obstetrics and Gynecology services. It is apparent that a number of other departments are on the edge of collapse. We cannot allow this to happen. Whakatāne has always had excellent medical services, as many of us know from personal experience. We need to come together to fight to keep them.

The Hikoi for Health Coalition is a broad coalition of people behind the Hikoi for Health thus Saturday. Members come from a wide range of backgrounds and ages and from across the political spectrum, united in their determination to protect local medical services and staff. They include concerned members of the community, health professionals, as well as representatives of organisations such as Whakatane Action Group, Whakatāne Act Local, NZ Labour and the Green Party.

We are not medical experts but from talking to people who are, it is clear that there are a number of things that could be put in place straight away to ease the situation. Allowing heads of departments to appoint staff to vacant positions without having to go through Tauranga is one. The appointment of a local General Manager to the hospital is another. Third is to appoint some recruitment specialists. Lastly Te Whatu Ora needs to improve its management of people and rosters and support our amazing medical staff. We will be marching on Saturday Feb 15 at 12 noon from Mitchell Park to call for urgent action to reinstate full maternity services in Whakatāne, and to fix the broader systemic issues at the hospital.