NEWS HR
February 16, 2017
Andrew Connolly was yesterday again re-elected chairperson of the Medical Council of New Zealand.
February 10, 2017
Oamaru Hospital director of nursing and community services Colleen Moore is going to retire next week.
February 7, 2017
One of New Zealand’s largest retirement village providers has confirmed the appointment of a new HR head, naming industry veteran Huma Houghton as its latest executive recruit. “Huma has strong credentials in human resource delivery and transformation and we feel she’s a great addition to our growing team,” said Glen Sowry, CEO of Metlifecare.
February 2, 2017
Waikato Hospital patient Robert Williams was woken at 4am when one of his doctors arrived drunk and rambling in his hospital room. Waikato health bosses are refusing to comment on the outcome of an investigation into a doctor who drunkenly abused a patient. Robert Pere Williams made a video and audio recordings of an intoxicated junior doctor who barged into his hospital room about 4am on December 17. The doctor told Williams, 22, he was upset because Waikato Hospital was so understaffed and repeatedly called the 22-year-old “a faggot”. He also threatened to kill himself. Waikato DHB staff declined to be interviewed on the matter but in a statement Greg Peploe, director of people and performance, said the board had concluded its investigation into the incident. Peploe said Williams and the doctor had been interviewed but, due to privacy rights, the board would not comment on the specific outcomes of its investigation. Williams, who has cystic fibrosis, alleged the doctor was drunk and he no longer felt safe in the hospital. He also complained about the behaviour of other hospital staff toward him. Peploe said no other employees had been investigated.
January 30, 2017
A Mosgiel woman swindled her ailing father and intellectually disabled brother out of $65,000 while she was supposed to be caring for them. Her father, before he died in August 2015, told one of his sons he suspected she was stealing from him but the son convinced him she would never do that. When he died, the truth came out. Judith Gale McMahon (52) appeared before the Dunedin District Court this week, after admitting three representative counts of theft. She had been granted interim name suppression until this week’s sentencing, when Judge Michael Crosbie refused an application to keep her identity under wraps permanently.
January 30, 2017
New Zealand doctors and medical students have been downloading an app that allows sharing of “freak show” photographs of patients for medical purposes. The popularity of the case-sharing app Figure1 – described as an Instagram for doctors – has prompted warnings from Auckland University about its use. The app was launched in Canada in 2013, and essentially allows doctors to crowd-source diagnoses. Medical professionals can upload pictures of diseases or wounds to the app, asking other users for their input into treatment or causes. Anyone with a smartphone can access it – it is not restricted to doctors.
January 25, 2017
A delivery contractor became an unwitting hero after discovering a mysterious car fire at a Whanganui rest home in the early hours of yesterday morning. David Bell arrived at the Nazareth Rest Home on St John’s Hill around 3am to drop off newspapers and noticed flames licking the inside window of a Ford Fiesta in the home’s carpark. “I saw flames coming out the driver’s side. I rang the door bell and alerted someone to what was happening and then I rang the fire brigade on my cellphone,” Mr Bell said. Nazareth manager Trish Boswell said Mr Bell’s quick actions, and the fast response from local firefighters, might have averted a major incident.
January 12, 2017
Piri Wiri Tua Hemi, also known as Bill, died at Waikato Hospital on Thursday, January 5, after spending his last months living happily at home with family. They had removed him from Hamilton’s Cascades Retirement Resort after planting a camera which filmed a caregiver slapping and manhandling him in June 2016.
