Whanganui District Health Board Chief Executive Julie Patterson today released a Decision Document on how the organisation could safely reduce its spending.

The decisions announced today follow a period of extensive consultation with staff, from across the organisation, which commenced in May.

Nine people will lose their jobs, however a number of these staff have already been offered the option of redeployment.   

Mrs Patterson said today that she realises how very hard this is for the staff affected by these decisions. 

“The DHB is very reluctant to make people redundant however just like any other business the DHB has to live within its means”.

 “To try and minimise the job losses the DHB has for sometime been holding vacancies to ensure that re-deployment options were available. I am hopeful that the majority of the people affected will be able to stay on our staff albeit in a different role”.

In total staff sent in over 200 submissions, and the DHB also received quite a number of submissions from outside agencies or individuals. 

Management will now be developing an implementation plan, where appropriate, in conjunction with the unions.