The Southern District Health Board's proposal to restructure its upper echelons lacks "intellectual grunt", and has not been well enough explained to staff, the head of the senior doctors' union says.
Ian Powell, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, was a "bit underwhelmed" by the document released on Monday for feedback.
The proposal to remove separate clinical departments in Otago and Southland involves ending eight general managers' jobs and creating five new managers known as "patient services division leaders". Nursing and medical leadership roles were also affected, and the DHB wanted to install joint responsibility between managers and clinicians.
Mr Powell said the proposed structure might work well, but questioned how people could give feedback when it was not well explained. An explanation of how the new structure worked over the DHB's vast distance would have helped, he said.
He would have liked more than one option for the new structure.
He joked the DHB needed to employ a geographer, as it seemed to ignore the issue of distance, a potential problem in an area the size of Southern.
The timeframe for the final decision on September 14 was "ridiculously tight".
He said there was no word on what further restructuring was planned after the current round, an indication of which might help people give feedback. This was important because it dictated which staff would sit beneath departmental leaders, Mr Powell said.
He feared management remained in a "cocoon", not properly communicating with staff.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation organiser Lorraine Lobb thought the proposal was "OK", but was concerned about a drop in top nurses.
Her "gut feeling" was that five nursing leaders, instead of nine, risked being "a bit too thin".
"I do know how stretched [the nurse leaders] are, and the good job they do," she said.
The "million-dollar question" was the effect on staff lower down the organisation, Ms Lobb said.
