NEWS HR
September 6, 2016
Former Southern District Health Board chief executive Carole Heatly has finished her four-year leadership of the health board.
September 6, 2016
Orion Health has announced the appointment of Ronald Andrews as an independent director of the company.
August 30, 2016
A woman with brain injuries was taken to Dunedin Hospital three days after being assaulted inside a Dunedin care facility. A distraught daughter says her mother’s face was “pummeled” by a fellow resident of a Dunedin care facility. “She was meant to be safe,” Emma Shepherd said of her 55-year-old mother. Pictures of her mother show large bruises around her eyes and mouth, with “some bruises still coming out five days after the assault”. On Wednesday, her mother was bashed at a Pact residential facility where she had lived for the last seven weeks. Shepherd said a 25-year-old woman assaulted her mother for warning her not to steal another flatmate’s vodka. “This chick just pummelled her face in.” Christchurch-based Shepherd, who is her mother’s only New Zealand next-of-kin and her welfare guardian, did not learn of the incident until she visited her on Saturday. Shocked at her mother’s condition, she complained to management who took her mother to Dunedin Hospital. Shepherd said her mother suffered a brain injury in 2013, and survived a long-term abusive relationship resulting in her former partner being jailed. Because of the brain injury, she has been deemed to be incapable of living alone. “I trusted these people to make sure she is safe, because she is more vulnerable than she has ever been,” Shepherd said. “[Pact] haven’t dealt with this the right way, they have tried to cover it up.” Asked why her daughter was not informed of the assault, Pact chief executive Louise Carr said it was “a reasonable expectation for families to be kept informed and it’s our intention to do so, subject to clients’ wishes”. “Many of our clients are quite capable of making their own decisions regarding such issues and we respect their wishes.” She confirmed the incident was being reviewed, “and, where necessary, measures put in place to prevent them occurring again”. “As part of the incident reporting process, we will assess whether the level of support was appropriate in this instance.” Although she could not discuss specific details due to privacy concerns, “we can say that if a client is ever hurt we offer to take them for medical treatment”. “It is up to the client whether he or she wishes to accept this offer.” Police are investigating the incident. Shepherd was concerned her mother, who was an alcoholic, was also allowed to buy alcohol and not encouraged to eat decent food. She paid $125 a week to stay at the St Kilda facility, with just $100 left over for groceries. “She has been drinking three casks of wine a week, so out of $100 you tell me what she is eating,” Shepherd said. “All she lives on is mushroom and cheese scones and canned food. “I am disgusted, and there is nothing I can do.” Carr said the flats were the clients’ homes and “alcohol is not prohibited, as long as it is used moderately and does not create disturbances to the service, clients or the wider community”. Alcohol consumption had to be discussed with staff, and Pact encouraged “a healthy attitude toward alcohol consumption, as part of the health and living skills we support people with”. Shepherd said her mother was not being supported in her new home, as “she just stays in bed drinking and smoking cigarettes all day, that’s all she does”. “It sounds bad but I’ve spent my whole life being the parent, it is time for me to put my life together but I’m having to deal with this because the people that are meant to be helping me aren’t doing their jobs.”
August 11, 2016
A retirement village employee stole a credit card from an elderly client to help her partner pay off his drug debts. The elderly woman they stole it from died a short time after the card was stolen. Amanda Kylee Atkinson was working at Jane Winstone retirement village from September last year to February this year, the Whanganui District Court heard yesterday. Between January 1-16, she stole the victim’s credit card, using it to buy $118.20 worth of products. Atkinson shared the card with associates, one of whom was her partner, Callum Darius Sherman. Sherman spent $727, police prosecutor Sergeant Drew Morrison said. The victim died on January 26, and her son-in-law reported suspicious activity on her card to BNZ on February 3. There were 78 fraudulent transactions on the card, adding up to $6740.38. Atkinson also went through a client’s drawers sometime during January and stole a chequebook, Mr Morrison said. She pleaded guilty to four counts of using a document for pecuniary advantage, and Sherman pleaded guilty to one count. Sherman told police he needed the money to pay off drug debt. He has no criminal history, Judge Philip Crayton said. Judge Crayton sentenced Sherman to nine months’ supervision and ordered he pay reparation of $727. He remanded Atkinson to October 19 for sentencing. The Jane Winstone Retirement Village is operated by Ryman Healthcare.
August 5, 2016
The Salvation Army denies it has “fired” two volunteers for speaking out about the future of the Dunedin foodbank and the treatment of the organisation’s staff. Former Dunedin Salvation Army volunteers Reg Ozanne and Tracey McCabe said they were “fired” by Salvation Army manager David McKenzie yesterday. The pair spoke about their concern for the future of the organisation’s foodbank after a staff restructure left seven people without jobs. Ms McCabe said she called the organisation to ask if she had been “fired” after Mr Ozanne told her he had been sacked when he went to the Salvation Army to complete his regular volunteer shift yesterday. Ms McCabe said she asked Mr McKenzie “have I been fired” and he replied “yes, you have been fired”. The volunteer of four years said she was told she had been sacked because she breached her contract by speaking to the media. After being told this, she claims the manager hung up on her. Mr Ozanne did not want to discuss his dismissal. However, he confirmed he was also told he was “fired” because of speaking to the media. Neither Ms McCabe nor Mr Ozanne could recall having signed contracts. Salvation Army southern division community ministry secretary Captain Lindsay Andrews said neither Ms McCabe nor Mr Ozanne had been fired. “They are volunteers. They cannot be fired.” Mr Ozanne had been “advised to take a temporary break” by the Dunedin manager, and the organisation had not asked Ms McCabe to change anything. “We have no intention to stop Tracey volunteering.”
August 3, 2016
A former relief care worker is disappointed but not defeated after a court quashed a breakthrough decision on rights affecting potentially thousands of carers. Now, Janet Lowe’s union has said an appeal to New Zealand’s highest court is likely after the setback in the battle for better pay and more rights for relief carers. “We think it’s a very important public policy issue,” E tu union assistant national secretary John Ryall said on Tuesday.
August 2, 2016
The Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal in Tasmania has ruled in the ‘high heels’ case. A worker made a claim for compensation in which she describes suffering an injury that involved her right foot, which she asserts was due to the extent of walking she was required to do in the course of her employment. But the tribunal raised a secondary issue which it did not rule on as neither party raised the issue. Even if the injury was triggered in the claimant’s ‘personal life’, it is open to the tribunal to rule against the employer if the employee aggravates the pre-existing disease as a result of the walking required in the workers employment duties.
August 1, 2016
A Taranaki nurse who spent 10 years in a US prison for aggravated robbery – then lied about it to the New Zealand Nursing Council – has had his practising licence cancelled. New Plymouth nurse James Middlebrook concealed his past criminal history – which also included holding up a pharmacy for narcotics – when he applied for nursing registration in New Zealand in 2013. He was allowed to practise for 10 months before the council discovered his criminal file and suspended him.
