BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 1082 FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2018
Crime and Cleeves PROLIFIC author Ann Cleeves is in Bendigo this week for the Bendigo Writers Festival and has been spreading the word around town. Her works include the Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez series, both which have been made into TV programs as Vera and Shetland respectively. Read about Ann and the festival on pages 10 and 11.
LOST HOURS Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
By SHARON KEMP
ST John of God Bendigo Hospital is asking staff to voluntarily give up hours as its business growth fails to live up to expectations following a $41 million redevelopment. In an email to staff, chief executive Trevor Matheson cited rising competition as a reason to “recalibrate our workforce to ensure that our hospital is positioned to continue to operate in an efficient and sustainable way”. In contrast, Bendigo Health’s new $630m hospital which is be-
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St John of God seeks staff cuts
ing opened today by Premier Daniel Andrews, received a 34 per cent boost to its operating budget due to increased patient numbers. Mr Matheson sought to downplay the effect of Bendigo hospital on its business, saying St John’s had experienced sound growth since 2017, but lower “than we expected in our first year and we need to respond to that”. He told staff that “escalating op-
erating costs”, a common challenge for many other private hospitals, also factored. The hospital has asked staff to consider volunteering for options including redundancy, early retirement, a reduction in hours, taking leave, reclassification or converting to casual. “Unfortunately, despite best endeavours, the predicted growth for our new redevelopment has not yet
helps the farmers – Page 3
been fully realised,” Mr Matheson wrote. “The review has led to the decision to remodel our current workforce arrangements for some departments. “Regrettably, this means we need to reduce the number of worked hours (and in some cases the number of care givers) that we currently have within those departments.”
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St John of God has experienced a sharp decline in the number of births in recent years, even before the new hospital opened for business in January 2017 and almost immediately suffered a shortage of midwives. A service page on the hospital’s website shows births dropped from 440 in 2012-13 to 347 in 2016-17, but the hospital is about to start a complete refurbishment of its birthing suites during which the maternity ward will continue to operate.
Property Guide inside
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