Last week I asked Dr Kevin Snee, DHB’s CEO, a series of questions about current managing of Cranford Hospice.
My questions (here on BayBuzz) dealt mostly with the ongoing roles of Presbyterian Support’s two managers, Shaun Robinson and Barry Keane. Most readers of the recent Cranford audit, sharply critical of Cranford’s management-produced dysfunctional organizational culture, have been dumbfounded that these managers have been allowed to play any role at all in efforts to “fix” Cranford.
Both should be placed on “gardening duty.” Simple as that.
Here’s how Dr Snee explains the situation in an email reply to BayBuzz:
Dear Tom
Thanks for your email. I respond to your questions as follows:
Cranford Hospice’s executive director Barry Keane is responsible for the running of Cranford Hospice’s outpatient service. Barry reports to change manager John Newland, who in turn reports to the PSEC board chairman Michael Konig, and myself.
The HR process involved in the redeployment and restructure of Cranford Hospice is being managed by Hawke’s Bay District Health Board with assistance from PSEC. Mr Keane will sit on a selection panel with three of Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s senior staff. This process has been agreed by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation [BayBuzz note: Unfortunately, NZNO has sat on its thumbs and zippered its lips throughout the Cranford meltdown, at points where it might have had significant impact.], and it would be inappropriate not to include Mr Keane, given that Cranford Hospice remains the employer of the staff. [BayBuzz note: Keane is reported in HB Today as chairing the re-employment panel … a rather weird approach to “change management”!]
It is also important to note that the terms and conditions of the nurses who move to work at Hawke’s Bay Hospital will not change, as they remain on the same terms and conditions that they are currently employed on.
Governance arrangements of Cranford Hospice are being reviewed, as the DHB has already indicated, and a range of options are being considered. [BayBuzz note: In other public comments, Dr Snee has given the clear impression that PSEC will be entirely out of the picture. DHB, of course, can terminate PSEC’s services contract should it wish to.] The plan remains to return the inpatient service to Cranford within the six-month timeline. [BayBuzz note: At last Wednesday’s DHB Board meeting, Dr Snee indicated that six months was an outside date, implying inpatient service could return to the Hospice sooner.]
The DHB is working in partnership with PSEC to ensure this happens, but the priority is to have a hospice service that has a dedicated, experienced workforce who can work together.
PSEC’s chief executive, Shaun Robinson, is not involved in working with the DHB in relation to Cranford Hospice. [BayBuzz note: PSEC should find something else for Mr Keane to do as well.]
Kind regards,
Kevin
This article has the wrong heading. It is not “Kevin Snee comments on Cranford”; it is “Tom Belford comments on Kevin Snee”.
Tom Belford in his role as Scourge of PSEC is, of course, entitled to his view. To express those views as a parenthetical commentary on Dr Snee’s response is an unfortunate journalistic response.
How on earth does Tom Belford know that “most readers” of the audit have been “dumbfounded” that Cranford’s management have a role to play in the hospice’s restructuring. How can Tom Belford know how many people have read the audit, and how has he conducted a count of their views on it?
It just doesn’t help the credbility of BayBuzz, which so often does good work in reporting local affairs, that Tom Belford launches into emotive personal attacks and makes claims that are incapable of being substantiated.