News in brief
IMG update: staff transition progressing
Staff at the community hospital, Joan Whiting Rest Home and medical centre met this week to discuss the next steps towards building an integrated team.
The transition of staff is part of developing the Integrated Family Health Centre service at Golden Bay’s community hospital.
Staff of all three services met with Nelson Bays Primary Health chief executive Andrew Swanson Dobbs, while Nelson Marlborough District Health Board chief executive John Peters attended the hospital staff meeting on Monday and Joan Whiting trust chair Chris Mitson met rest home staff on Tuesday.
The meetings were designed to keep staff updated on the overall project and to explain the process involved in bringing the people together.
The plan is to work towards merging the three staffs in parallel with work on enlarging and renovating the building. A transition plan will be prepared, with input from staff, clinical leaders and unions, and involves a formal consultation process. No date has been identified for staff to complete the transfer.
Creating one team will involve developing a new management structure, designing new rosters, standardising systems and processes and building a new culture.
Mr Swanson Dobbs said, as with other aspects of the project, the intention is to work collaboratively with staff.
“There will be a lot happening over the next few months and we want everyone to be kept in the loop and involved in the process.”
He said the new integrated service would mean some new roles, or changes to existing roles. Planning is also underway to advertise for a service director to run the facility.
The update also shows construction of the enlarged facility is now expected to be completed in August next year. The timeline has been extended because of some delays in various approvals.
Submitted by IMG
Hands Across the Sand protest gathering an international event
An upcoming gathering of people linking hands across Pohara Beach will be part of an international display of solidarity against expanded offshore drilling and use of unclean energies.
It’s scheduled for noon on 25 June, when people around the world in their corresponding time zones will also join hands on beaches and in cities for the second annual Hands Across the Sand.
The solidarity protest will take place at Tahunanui and Kaiteriteri beaches as well.
Co-ordinating the event in Golden Bay is Victoria Davis, who expects a good crowd will turn up.
“The timing is fortuitous. Increased awareness about oil prospecting in our own backyard has brought a lot of people out on the issue. It’s about sustainable futures, overseeing positive growth for the Bay that is not at the expense of our environment.”
The Hands Across the Sand movement started two years ago after Florida surfer and acclaimed restaurateur Dave Rauschkolb took exception to a bill passed by Florida’s House of Representatives that lifted the ban on nearshore drilling. He rallied over 10,000 Floridians to join hands at numerous state beaches on 13 February, 2010, to show their “united wall of opposition”.
Just two months later, the BP Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and Rauschkolb went global with his protest to urge President Obama to abandon his bid to open the continental United States waters to offshore oil drilling.
On June 26, 2010, over 1,000 Hands Across the Sand events took place in all 50 states and 42 countries around the world, including New Zealand.
“These had nothing to do with politics,” said Rauschkolb in an interview afterwards. “It’s about protection of coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife and fisheries. The accidents that are continuing to happen with oil drilling are a threat to every one of those. Entire communities, ecosystems and economies along the Florida coast continue to be devastated by that Deepwater Horizon spill. It has had a truly disastrous effect. That’s why so many people across so many walks of life are now joining hands as a way of saying ‘no’ to offshore drilling and ‘yes’ to clean energy.” Already, Hands Across The Sand carries the endorsement of a myriad of international environmental organisations: the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Environment America, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Ocean Conservancy and Friends of the Earth.
Hands Across the Sand, Pohara Beach (meet opposite Pohara Hall), noon on Saturday 25 June.
Gerard Hindmarsh
New books at the library
Non-fiction
- Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie by Lauren Redniss. A remarkable tale of love and fallout.
- The Horse in New Zealand: attitude and heart by Carolyn Mincham.
- Build your own Earth Oven: a low-cost, wood-fired mud oven by Kiko Denzer & Hanna Field.
- For the Love of the Game: Grassroots Rugby in Heartland New Zealand by Gregor Paul & Gregory Crow.
- Getting to know you: Simple Games to play with your baby by Sally Featherstone & Clare Beswick.
- Raising Boys 3rd edition by Steve Biddulph. Why boys are different and how to help them become happy and well-balanced men.
Fiction
- Catching the Tide by Judith Lennox. “A gripping and intelligent romance” Good Book Guide.
- The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (winner of the Booker Prize). Her new novel of love and betrayal is set in Ireland’s boom years.
- Prophecy: Clash of Kings by M.K. Hume. Book one, “The Legend of Merlin Begins”.
- The Undivided: Rift Runners, book one by Jennifer Fallon. Fantasy fiction.
- Deep Black: Death Wave by Stephen Coonts. Keeps you on the edge of your seat.
- The Sixth Man by David Baldacci. A King and Maxwell thriller.
- Quicksilver by Jayne Ann Krentz. Her latest sizzling Victorian intrigue.
