Staff at Bendigo Hospital have been told to prepare for job losses and redeployments as the regional Victorian health service undergoes a major restructure. 

In an email from Bendigo Health CEO Eileen Hannagan staff were advised a review of all services was needed to ensure they remained efficient.

“We have begun consultation with many departments outlining proposed changes,” the email stated. 

“At present, we are restructuring some areas of our workforce to align our resources with operational needs as well as changing some models of service delivery.

Union says nine jobs will go

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victorian Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick says they are seeking further information but Bendigo Health was proposing a restructure of its nursing and midwifery learning, education and development department.

“ANMF understands the amalgamation of roles may result in the loss of 9.1 equivalent full-time nursing positions which represents about 15 part-time nurses,” she said.

Ms Fitzpatrick said the positions were above ratios, but had an important role in providing clinical, education and mentoring support to nurses and midwives. 

She said nurses at the bedside would have to take on more mentoring of student and graduate nurses and midwives.

She said Bendigo Health would find it challenging to retain its younger workforce without these roles and end up spending more than it saves on agency nurses and midwives.

“It is difficult to understand why management would make nurses redundant when hospitals across the state and the country are trying to rebuild their nursing and midwifery workforces after the difficult years of the pandemic.” 

Ms Fitzpatrick also said Bendigo Health’s proposal “is lacking detail and we are seeking further information”.

In her email, obtained by the ABC, Ms Hannagan said recruitment would now be restricted and expenditure would be reviewed.

Government working with health service

The ABC understands about 20 jobs could be lost in total.

However, it is not clear whether the job losses would include clinical positions.

A Victorian government spokesperson said they were working closely with health services to make sure they were directing expenditure to where it is needed

“Bendigo Health has advised that the workforce changes they are proposing include back office staff and will not impact frontline services,” the spokesperson said.

Ms Hannagan said management would try “to ensure staff are provided with suitable redeployment opportunities to maintain their employment with Bendigo Health”.

“However, there will be some cases where this will not occur.”

The email acknowledged that it would be a “challenging time” for staff.

Cuts come after funding overhaul

In August, the Victorian Government confirmed a major overhaul of the state’s health system with an extra $1.5 billion allocation of funding for the state’s hospitals.

The overhaul would see the Victorian health system reconfigured into a network of services based on geography.

The Local Health Service Networks would group hospitals near each other to provide more seamless care.

A new body, Hospitals Victoria, was also announced to oversee hospitals’ back-end operations.

Nationals MP Gaelle Broad said the possibility of job cuts at Bendigo Health was concerning given how much pressure the service was already experiencing.

“Under the state government’s plan to consolidate regional health into five service networks, Bendigo Hospital is set to become a hub that will serve a much larger patient population than it currently does,” she said. 

“Our health system is struggling on many fronts.

Demand will be met

A Bendigo Health spokesperson said the restructures would better align resources with operational demand.

“Bendigo Health has received additional funding from the Victorian government for services over the 24/25 and 25/26 financial years, which has guaranteed our current clinical services and provided some growth to meet increasing demand,” the spokesperson said. 

“The budget requires us to ensure our funds and resources achieve the best outcome for our patients and staff.”

The spokesperson said changes would not impact the health service’s ability to meet demand.

“Staff impacted by changes will receive support and care throughout this period of time,” the spokesperson said. 

Bendigo Health did not respond to specific questions from the ABC about how many staff would lose their positions or what the positions were.