EDITORIAL

It’s time for a healthier feeling of stability

EXPERTS will tell you that stability is essential to a person’s wellbeing.

Most people need to feel a sense of security in order to thrive. Stability promotes confidence, calmness and a sense of belonging. Knowing where you stand and what you are facing is the ultimate stress-buster.

Unfortunately for the 7000-odd employees of Barwon Health, stability is something they have been in short supply of for almost five years now.

Barwon Health, our region’s biggest employer, has had three chief executive officers and two interim CEOs since 2015.

David Ashbridge’s five-year tenure ended in 2015 and was followed by the permanent appointments of Belinda Moyes and Ruth Salom, who only lasted in the job 10 and 16 months respectively.

It is little wonder that when Professor Salom announced her resignation in December, staff satisfaction and workplace culture were on the downward trajectory.

How is such a crucial organisation expected to thrive amid such a period of instability?

Yesterday Barwon Health announced that it had appointed experienced senior bureaucrat Frances Diver as its new CEO. Ms Diver comes to the role after a long history in the healthcare sector and a period in the top job at the CFA, when she was brought in by the State Government to help the beleaguered organisation deal with its cultural problems.

She has a background in nursing, experience in crisis management and is in the process of relocating to Geelong. On paper she looks like an excellent appointment and just the medicine Barwon Health needs.

Barwon Health chairman Brian Cook agrees, identifying her experience, resilience and sense of fairness as attributes that make her ideal for the role.

He also singled out the organisation’s cultural issues as something that Ms Diver would need to tackle.

Of course, what the organisation craves as much as anything is stability in its leadership, so one of the most important things Ms Diver will need to do is simply stick around.

Once the staff know that their leader is on their side and will be around for the long haul, we should see notable improvement in one of Geelong’s most important and valuable organisations.