SA Health sacks Central Adelaide Local Health Network boss Julia Squire
THE head of two major city hospitals has been sacked just 16 months into a five-year contract for a failure to “collaborate”.
- Special Report: Transforming Health explained
- Snelling backflips, agrees to reopen RAH beds
- Damaging review of CALHN finds medical staff ‘resisting change’
THE head of two major city hospitals has been sacked just 16 months into a five-year contract for a failure to “collaborate”.
Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Julia Squire was scheduled to return from personal leave on Tuesday but will instead permanently leave the service after she was dismissed by SA Health chief executive Vickie Kaminski.
Ms Kaminski said she’d decided Ms Squire’s future on Monday night, a comment derided as “nonsense” by Transforming Health critic Warren Jones, who said the decision had been made two weeks ago.
She said SA Health deputy chief executive Len Richards would continue to act as CALHN chief executive, and bring the consultative approach it needed.
“Looking what we need to do over the next short while as we get ready to transition into the new RAH, we really need somebody with a more collaborative, more consultative style and that’s what we think Len Richards brings to the role in the interim,” she said.
“What we need to do is to give people an opportunity to feel included in the decisions — if people plan the battle they don’t battle the plan — so we have to have them involved and looking at what it is that we’re going to be doing in the new RAH, how we’re going to be looking after patients.”
CALHN takes in the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Queen Adelaide Hospital.
It’s unclear how much Ms Squire will be paid out but Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said he understood it would be in excess of $300,000.
Ms Kaminski said there was no particular incident that had triggered Ms Squire’s sacking, despite suggestions it was because she’d failed to consult with staff over the closure of Ward 7 at the RAH.
Under pressure from angry nurses threatening industrial action, the Minister committed two weeks ago to reopen space for general medical patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
An independent review of CALHN commissioned by Ms Squire found medical staff were resisting change and were “rooted in a mid-20th Century view of the profession”.
It found “with some exceptions … little evidence of effective clinical governance at either service level or at whole of organisation level”.
Ms Squire was appointed CALHN chief executive in August 2015 and began work in October the same year.
CALHN takes in the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Prof Jones said it was “offensive” to suggest Ms Squire had failed to be collaborative.
“I think she may have not been pursuing Transforming Health’s goals vigorously enough,” he said.
Mr Wade said he suspected Ms Squire had been made a “scapegoat” of the temporary Ward 7 closure and Transforming Health’s unpopularity.
“They’re trying to deflect from the flaws in their plan,” he said.
Health Minister Jack Snelling said he trusted Ms Kaminski’s judgment.
“I employed Vickie Kaminski to make the tough calls — especially ensuring we have the right people in the right jobs,” he said.
An independent review of CALHN commissioned by Ms Squire found medical staff were resisting change and were “rooted in a mid-20th Century view of the profession”.
It found “with some exceptions … little evidence of effective clinical governance at either service level or at whole of organisation level”.
Ms Squire was a central player in the SA Pathology prostate test bungle exposed by the Sunday Mail.
SA Health sacked former director Ken Barr in April, 2015, after the Sunday Mail revealed dozens of local men had been falsely diagnosed with prostate cancer after SA Pathology botched the testing process.
Ms Squire announced Mr Barr’s replacement, Dr Glenn Edwards, would take the role in November 2015.
DEPARTURE LOUNGE
Senior SA Health staff who have left since the Transforming Health overhaul was announced include:
David Swan — SA Health chief executive, quit last year to take a job in the private sector.
Jenny Richter — deputy chief executive, resigned last year, replaced by Vickie Kaminski, who went on to replace David Swan as chief executive;
Judith Carr — resigned as project director of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project last year
Andrew Neilsen — resigned as RAH program director
Dr David Panter — resigned as CALHN chief executive in 2015 to work in the private sector, was a pivotal figure in the new RAH project.
Robert Morton — quit suddenly in 2015 after 18 months as SA Ambulance Service chief executive after being headhunted from Ireland
Steve Moro — resigned as Director of Procurement for the new RAH.
Ken Barr — sacked as SA Pathology boss in 2016 over the prostate cancer test misdiagnosis scandal, has since claimed he was a scapegoat.
Professor Peter Bardy — resigned as RAH head of cancer in 2016 amid chemotherapy bungle scandal.
Dr Dewald Behrens — resigned as clinical director of Modbury Hospital’s ED in 2016 in frustration over Transforming Health reforms to downgrade the hospital but continued to work at Modbury as a clinician.