‘The Health Ministry’s new chief believes it is possible to cut doctor and nurse positions without compromising health services.
Kevin Woods, head of Scotland’s National Health Service, will take over as New Zealand’s Director-General of Health in early 2011, the State Services Commission announced today.
Dr Woods has headed the NHS in Scotland since 2005.
Earlier this year, he oversaw the axing of 1500 nurse positions in Scotland.
……….Dr Woods has a Doctor of Philosophy and Bachelor of Science (Honours), Geography, from the University of London, and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health.’
KATE NEWTON, the “journalist” responsible for this story has done little more than recycle a Health Minstry handout. Perhaps the new boss can explain how fewer doctors and nurses will improve a situation where wards are understaffed, many nurses are close to burn-out but feel reluctant to let down their workmates and turn up for work overtired, where first-year house surgeons are left to manage emergency departments on their own….and in all this PR blather, you’ll notice one glaring omission: NO MENTION AT ALL ABOUT REDUCING THE NUMBER OF EFFING PAPER-SHUFFLING DRONES IN ORDER TO FREE UP FUNDS THAT WOULD EMPLOY MORE FRONT-LINE STAFF.
(and of course, no mention of reducing the massive paperwork burden placed on staff by those same paper-shufflers–who seem to spend their days dreaming up new paperwork hoops for overworked staff to jump through)
UPDATE: Misleading headline in Stuff news: ‘New health boss praised by Scottish nurses’ But the text reads: ‘Theresa Fyffe, Director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland says Dr Woods “leaves the NHS in Scotland in a better place than it was when he arrived”.
