SO SOMETHING is broken at Royal North Shore Hospital

THE CASE
A while ago, actually a good while ago, the NSW State Government decided to reformulate the various area health boards, by combining smaller boards into a handful of large boards.

Shortly after this was announced, I saw an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald asking for interested and suitably qualified persons to submit applications for appointment to the proposed Northern Sydney and Central Coast Health (NSCCH). I was interested and felt that I was suitably qualified so I applied. The application form was very detailed and I also had to agree to a police check.

After about twelve months I hadn't heard anything, so I contacted NSW Health, to be told that, yes, they had received my application, a decision hadn't been made, but was expected soon.

A few months later I contacted NSW Health again, this time I was told my application was unsuccessful. A few weeks later I noticed in my local paper, The Manly Daily, that a chairperson of the board had been appointed and that the rest of the board would be chosen soon.

In all that time I was never given an interview, telephoned, or even given the courtesy of acknowledgement of my application, or even that my application was not successful.

What do I make of this?

I believe that nearly eighteen months is too long to consider board appointments.

I believe that the whole thing was a sham, in that the composition of the board was decided in advance. Applications were never considered, instead predetermined board members were just invited to apply. There was never any intention of appointing anyone they did not already know.

I hope the systems put in place to create new boards are not an indication of the normal management systems of NSW Health.

MY VERDICT
The health workers at RNSH are being let down by the management structure, the system is cost driven rather than health outcome driven. The NSW Government is unwilling or unable to fund the system adequately. The administrative structure from top to the bottom is built around small untouchable empires. The area health boards can't work effectively if they are just designed to maintain the status quo.

I am not writing this out of sour grapes because I was not appointed - I didn't really mind. I applied because I thought I might be able to help.