MBOMBELA – Almost a year after opening its doors, Kiaat Private Hospital (KPH) is planning to let staff go. The hospital informed its employees on Friday that its organisational structure would be restructured “to ensure the most cost-effective and sufficient organisational structure for KPH to meet its operational requirements”.
These are to result in retrenchments of some of the 195 administrators, nurses and staff currently employed. KPH head office says it is regrettable.
“Kiaat Private Hospital is a responsible employer and regrets any action that leads to restructuring. After nearly a year of service to our community, Kiaat Private Hospital needs to align its business processes to ensure that we are more agile, effective and clinical, in our objective of serving our patients increasingly better, whilst still ensuring that we run a responsible and sustainable business for the betterment of the community we serve.
“We regret that this action needs to be taken but please be assured that all action is taken to ensure that the process is conducted in a responsible and dignified manner and it is in line with requirements as stipulated by the law.”
KPH, a joint venture between Health Partners UK and Nozala Investments, is managed by Nozala Health Partners (NHP). Kiaat opened its doors in October 2014.
Marketing manager, Ms Taryn Laas says there are simply too many staff members for the number of occupied beds.
“Ideally the staff should have increased as the hospital’s occupancy grew, but this is not what happened.”
Hospital manager, Mr Michael Strauss says the exact number of staff members that will be let go is uncertain at this point. And while occupancy is growing, it is not growing fast enough. There are two problems to this; one concerns the hospital’s marketing.
“In April doctors in Lydenburg thought the hospital was still being built,” he says.
Both Laas and Strauss agree that they are controlling the damage done by actions taken and not taken before they joined Kiaat earlier this year.
The other problem is what Strauss calls an uneven playing field for independent hospitals.
Kiaat is not a designated service provider for some schemes or some of their options, which prevents patients from using it, even though it is sometimes cheaper. KPH is a member of the National Hospital Network (NHN) which negotiates its rate structure with medical-aid schemes.
In March the competition commission prohibited the listed Life Healthcare Group (LHG) from acquiring Lowveld Hospital, finding the merger would immediately increase the hospital tariffs when the fee structure is changed from the current NHN-based structure, to the LHG models.
“The increase in prices will be significant and immediate, ranging from six per cent to 19 per cent,” the commission said in its findings.
Laas says if the hospital keeps all its staff, tariffs will have to increase. “But the company’s vision is to offer affordable health care,” she says.
Strauss explains that top management, executive heads and heads of departments will be restructured first to flatten the management structure, before moving to the lower levels. The process is expected to take a while. In terms of the Labour Relations Act, top management employees can now make written submissions as to why they should keep their jobs.
“We have to keep costs down. We have looked at the telephone bills and IT. But the main thing is always personnel costs.”
The paediatric and maternity wards, the theatre, emergency room, finance, support and pharmacy will then be restructured, as they are underutilised. The medical and surgical wards, intensive-care and neonatal units will, however, not be affected.
“The ship is sailing, but it must sail faster,” Laas says. “We have to ensure that we will be here to provide a service to the community for many years to come.”
