Pisk Recommendation 57 was: "That a Steering Committee that includes representation by the South Taranaki Health Group and representatives of the GPs of South Taranaki, oversees the implementation of recommendations including the recruitment strategy for MOSS. This Committee will report directly to the CEO."

Composition as approved by the TDHB:

Pat Heremaia (STHG), Dr Keith Blayney and Dr Rall Koen (GPs)
Andre Nel, Mike Grant and Wendy Langlands (TDHB).
Resignations: Pat in June (leaving district), Mike in July (left TDHB) and Rall (time restraints)
Replacements: Joy Farley (Hospital Gen. Manager), Neil Walker (STHG) and Dr Robin Burness (Medical Officer representative).
Further additions: Glen Katu or Claire Stewart (THB member), Brenda Sturgeon (Hawera Staff representative), Ken Horner (ex-officio lawyer) and often Mary Bonner (acting CEO).
Current composition: Linda Caddick (THB member), Joy Farley (Hospital Gen. Manager), Brenda Sturgeon (Hawera Staff), Dr Keith Blayney (GP), Neil Walker (STHG), Dr Robin Burness (Medical Officer), Ken Horner (ex-officio) and Wendy Langlands (TDHB Hawera Manager).

Progress:

There have been regular meetings 4-6 weeks apart, as well as liaison with the South Taranaki Health Group, particularly on the concept of Medical Officer retention [See Friends of the Hospital]. Recruitment strategies and advertising have been discussed and actioned. There has been contributions from others, including Wendy London (Lealand) who assisted with the composition of the ad. Three Medical Officers (two with US post-graduate training) have made longer term contracts and arrived, one resigned to further his career and a new MO found (see photos to left). Acute 24 hour admissions have now resumed and two "monitored beds" commissioned, with the potential to increase to 4.

The Pisk Plan Stage I has been largely implemented while Stage 2 involves the relationship with the Emergency Department beyond the current scope of the committee. The Steering Committee is now in the process of "re-inventing itself" as a committee to work with the TDHB to provide feedback, suggestions and support to the TDHB to maintain health services in South Taranaki. The minutes of each meeting are (eventually) available on the TDHB site as word documents.

Deloitte Audit:

Following the near closure of Hawera Hospital Inpatient services in July 02, the TDHB requested an internal audit which was carried out by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. This produced some considerable criticism of the TDHB management structure, while the Hawera Hospital Steering Committee efforts were praised and I quote "we assess that the recruitment activities for permanent MOSSs at Hawera Hospital was very successful. The activities were neither excessive from a cost perspective nor deficient in terms of intensity of the search." Their only concern about the Steering Committee was over the secrecy surrounding the minutes and so made the recommendation that "Processes for minuting meetings for the Hawera Hospital Steering Committee (HHSC) should be changed to increase the transparency and improve the public disclosure." I fully endorse this recommendation as this has also been a concern of mine from the beginning, and have advocated a full public release of minutes (minus details on individuals). An Executive Summary of the report is available here either as a 63KB MS Word Document, or as a 94KB PDF file

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Page last modified 28th January 2004