Calvary Public Hospital Bruce executives to leave as major restructure proposed

The proposed restructure of the executive team would come as Canberra's health system is facing increasing pressure due to staffing shortages.

There would be a significant restructure in portfolios, which Calvary has said is important for its future.

But there are concerns that people with a non-medical background could be placed in charge of key divisions of the hospital and that important knowledge about the hospitals' operations could be lost.

Calvary's regional chief executive for ACT emailed staff about the changes and said some executives would not reapply for their jobs. All executive members would be affected by the restructure.

The email, seen by The Canberra Times, encouraged staff at the hospital to provide feedback on the proposed restructure by Tuesday.

"As you are aware from the initial communications, all existing Calvary Public Hospital executive members are personally affected by the proposed restructure and regional roles are unaffected," the email said.

"For each of them, the current proposed new structure would mean them reapplying for new roles.

"You may have also heard some executives have made the decision not to reapply for roles once the consultation period ends and the future structure is agreed.

"For any existing division that may lose their current executive, the general manager will put in place interim arrangements and will announce these when they are at the end of the consultation period."

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A Calvary representative said the restructure was important for the future of the hospital but the representative did not address questions around whether executives had left due to the restructure.

"Calvary Public Hospital Bruce is consulting with its staff and unions regarding a re-alignment of the executive portfolios within its executive leadership team," the representative said.

"This restructure is important to ensure that Calvary Bruce Public Hospital continues to deliver high quality health services to the people of Canberra."

Do you know more? Email: l.bladen@canberratimes.com.au

A review into the structure of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce began in September, and management said it was to align with the Little Company of Mary Health Care national strategy.

Calvary Hospital has been struggling to fill vacancies because of a large number of staff needing to isolate with COVID-19.

Management assured staff there were no financial constraints on hiring causal and agency staff but finding the people with the right skill sets was challenging.

The hospital is also struggling to fill persistent vacancies after two years of border closures and a lack of qualified local candidates.

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