Hospital staff demand new CEO

National, Normal
Source:

By JEFFREY ELAPA

MORE than 200 Modilon General Hospital staff members and doctors stopped work on Wednesday for a meeting to demand the appointment of a permanent chief executive officer (CEO).
The meeting was attended by the provincial administrator, Joseph Dorpar, acting CEO Sr Christine Gawi, provincial health co-ordinator Markus Katchau and the acting human resources director Sr Gaul Sual.
The CEO position has been vacant after the contract of Sr Gawi expired last year.
She had been acting in the position ever since.
The staff said their morale and discipline was on the decline as there was no control and command from the top, leading to poor performance and attendance.
National doctors union representative, Dr Ilomo Hwaihwaje, said many babies and mothers have died and different wards and sections of the hospital were not working.
“There is no CEO to instill discipline among the staff which results in the performances of nurses and doctors to declined,” he said.
Another medical officer told The National that many specialist doctors had left the hospital because “it is not functioning”.
In a written petition, staff members said that the hospital lacked adequate administrative and management directives, resulting in poor communication between directors and subordinates, poor discipline and poor staff performance.
They said the hospital did not have specialist medical officers to serve the people while staff morale was low and punctuality was a serious problem.
Other issues addressed in the petition were lack of payment delays of their leave entitlements, and other awards and due entitlements that were not looked into by the management for the past six years.
They demanded that a caretaker manager be appointed so that he or she could push for the appointment of a CEO and the other management positions as they would also liaise with the deputy Prime Minister for a staff structure.
Mr Dorpar said he would be raising their problems with the Chief Secretary and other relevant  authorities.