Northern Beaches Hospital: Director of Nursing Moran Wasson leaves suddenly
Another key player at the new private Northern Beaches Hospital has left suddenly, the sixth senior staff member to go since it opened in October.
Mystery surrounds the sudden departure of another senior executive at Northern Beaches Hospital.
Private operator Healthscope said Director of Nursing Moran Wasson was “taking a break after a long and distinguished nursing career” and the hospital would be appointing a new person in the role in July.
It follows the recent announcement of a parliamentary inquiry into the running and management of the new hospital in Frenchs Forest which opened in October.
A hospital source said Ms Wasson’s departure was very sudden and “everybody was wondering what happened”.
The source added that many disagreed with Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s comments last week that staff were devastated about an inquiry, saying they were in fact “delighted”.
The hospital had a horror start on opening with a lack of medical supplies and not enough staff to cope with demand.
It has also been blighted by a number of senior departures including CEO Deborah Latta, Medical Director Louise Messara and Head of Anaesthetics Alistair Boyce and two senior anaesthetists.
Labor’s Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord, who was behind the inquiry, said Ms Wasson’s role in charge of all nursing at the hospital was a key position.
“This is a key position and again the sixth major departure from the Northern Beaches Hospital,” he said.
Brett Holmes, from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, said he did not know or had never met Ms Wasson but there had been issues with staffing at the hospital.
He also said that following the Bureau of Health Information’s latest quarterly report last week, that Northern Beaches Hospital was not performing as expected in terms of treatment times.
“Clearly some of the performance data shows the hospital has a long way to go to meet expectations,” he said.
A Healthscope spokesman said Ms Wasson had established the hospital’s nursing structure and guided the commissioning of key hospital services.
“Moran achieved the goals she set at NBH, building a strong co-ordinated senior nursing team and leading the transfer of services from Manly and Mona Vale,” the spokesman said.
“We acknowledge Moran is taking a break after a long and distinguished nursing career and we thank her for her support and dedication.”
The spokesman added that in the interim, Frances Jordan has assumed the role as Acting Director of Nursing.
He said the hospital was continuing to steadily grow the obstetric and other nursing workforce across all specialist areas.
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