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Mayne Health has big plans for health on the Gold Coast - Opinion |
Opinion
There is naturally considerable interest in the re-branded Mayne company, which may shortly own the three largest private hospitals on the Gold Coast.
The new administration under Mr Peter Smedley as CEO and Mr Paul Tissot as head of Mayne Health were faced with several severe problems when they took over the helm of Mayne-Nickless and its subsidiary HCoA. There were 47 separate hospitals, a massive reduplication of effort, poor stock and other cost controls, no brand name, variable quality, and they were easy for the health funds to pick off.
They have developed a response designed to address these issues and add value to the company and its share price. This will, for the medical workforce, restore stability to the hospitals in which we work. It will also reduce the previously considerable risk of takeover, with asset stripping, by foreign companies.
The new plan will see the centralisation of all functions, finance and capital, marketing, hotel services, property management, policy and protocols (eg. quality), and procurement. This will produce considerable cost savings.
With regard to the medical workforce, visiting medical officers are to have representation through hospital, state and national medical advisory councils. VMOs are to become vital business partners with Mayne Health and the hospital posts sought after by them. Mayne Health wishes to develop a workforce of committed VMOs who do large volumes of quality work at their hospitals and who will cooperate with outcome monitoring and cost control measures. They wish quality to be linked with the Mayne brand.
The company has considerable vertical integration in pathology and radiology already and will develop this into general practice. The details are far from clear or developed at this time.
The role of nursing staff is also to be enhanced and changed to address the issue of low morale, which had developed.
In summary the new plan is far reaching and innovative. It will challenge traditional medical models of practice and there will undoubtedly be difficulties with implementation. However consultation is in place. The new plan does represent hope for an industry that was in trouble.
Peter Henderson is the chair of the MSC at John Flynn Hospital and a gynaecologist. (These opinions are his own and do not reflect the opinions of Mayne Health.)
This article was first published in GPSpeak in December 2000.
See also Mayne Health has big plans for health on the Gold Coast
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