Fourteen staff at St John of God Hospital Ballarat were suddenly made redundant last week in a cost-cutting exercise to secure the hospital’s future.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Four nursing staff, three maintenance, four executive assistants, two senior managers and one project manager were told on Tuesday and Wednesday their positions had been made redundant after an internal review.
Most of the nursing staff made redundant had worked at the hospital for a number of decades.
The cuts could also see several specialist medical rehabilitation programs dropped.
New chief executive officer Alex Demidov told the staff the positions were being shed to reduce costs.
“The chief executive just said it was because of cost cutting, and due to the need to reduce costs my position was being made redundant and it was nothing personal,” said one former staff member who did not want to be named for fear of jeopardising future job prospects.
A letter given to the redundant staff said a recent review of services identified increased operating costs and reduced growth at the hospital and the redundancies would help the hospital continue to operate effectively and sustainably.
Mr Demidov said the private healthcare industry was becoming more competitive and many hospitals would have to review their costs to ensure their long-term sustainability.
"We have made some changes to reduce costs, including changes to our organisational structure which regrettably resulted in some redundancies, primarily to non-patient facing roles so there is no impact on the provision of high quality care or patient safety,” he said.
"Redundancies are a last resort,” he said.