Help for full-time workers rejected

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 2

Help for full-time workers rejected

A proposal that incentives be offered to make working full-time for the Canterbury Hospital Board more attractive has been rejected by the board. A board member, Mr David Close, had suggested at a meeting last month that a “professional development allowance” be offered to full-time senior medical officers to encourage recruitment and retention. Mr Close recommended that a working

party be set up to establish proposals which could be promoted through the Hospital Boards* Association. However, the medical superintendent - in - chief, Dr Ross Fairgray, said that providing an allowance could create a split between full-time and part-time staff. The dean of the Christchurch School of Medicine, Professor Alan Clarke, agreed that such an incentive could raise more difficulties than it would solve.

The board decided yesterday not to form a working party and that Dr Fairgray should monitor what happened with staff and raise the matter again “should circumstances warrant such action.” Mr Close said he was disappointed at the decision. “I feel the board is still not facing this issue fairly and squarely. This is something the board is going to have to face up to sooner or later instead of running away from it.”