Launceston General Hospital's first director of operations named as Jenifer Duncan

For a regional hospital, dealing with an ageing population, high rates of chronic illness and a staff shortage, the task is easier said than done.

Add to that a once-in-a-generation pandemic that has precipitated the closure of wards and the furloughing of hundreds of staff and the task becomes more difficult still.

Such is the need to manage capacity at the LGH, a new role was established this year, with improved patient flow identified as the top priority. That role has fallen to Jenifer Duncan, the LGH's first director of operations.

An occupational therapist with a master in Public Health Management, Ms Duncan has decades of experience in private practice and the acute hospital setting across the country.

Before the LGH, Ms Duncan was the manager of surgical services at the John Hunter Hospital NSW, where she managed a department about the size of the LGH - a job she said prepared her for the new position.

"That role entailed running the service of surgical services which is about the same size as Launceston, a bigger hospital, enormous volume," she said.

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"We're the largest Trauma Centre in NSW, and we also produce the highest volume of surgery in NSW as well."

Only four months into the job and Ms Duncan has already implemented a tailored patient flow strategy at the request of LGH chief executive Eric Daniels. She said while she has several mandates, reducing bed block was at the top of the list.

"Crisis management is certainly a high part of it at the moment," she said. "And patient flow was the focus that the chief executive really wanted me to focus on initially here."

Having conducted a review of the roles and services at the hospital, Ms Duncan said the issues impacting the hospital were not limited to one, but driven by several intersecting factors.

"There's nothing I can say 'well, that's that's the problem here'," she said.

"What we have is a system that is reflective of the pressure from population growth, the health determinants of the local population, the challenges around the aged care capacity, and the NDIS as well, and that inability to deliver support and care in the community."

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In addition to the service pressure at the LGH, the hospital was facing a staffing shortage driven by national demand for healthcare workers. Recruiting and retaining staff for the hospital was an area to improve, with Ms Duncan saying more staff would be the quickest way to reduce pressure on the hospital.

"Having enough staff, so having enough nursing staff and medical staff and allied health staff to be able to ensure that we can meet all of the needs of the patients, because we're so short on occupational therapists, for example, that the interface they have on the wards can impact on that patient flow," she said. Ms Duncan said with the hospital having some flexibility to increase and decrease beds, staffing the services based on need would see patients move through the hospital at a greater speed.

"Medical and nursing staff are the same - we can open more beds or wards and they can flow better if we have adequate staff at the moment, particularly this week and last week with COVID where each day is just trying to cover enough beds to enable the hospital to flow," she said.

Despite the scale of the task, Ms Duncan said the hospital was already seeing the benefits of her role.

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"They [staff] can see the value in this role because there's somebody on the ground that's in a leadership role that has delegation to make decisions that can make things happen quicker," she said. "Whether it's a recruitment decision, or a change in service delivery, a decision that can be made at my level, and then I provide advice to the CEO.

"I've got a delegation framework. If it goes above that, then I need to consult with the chief executive, but I can actually action things."

Improving conditions on the ground for staff was an area Ms Duncan said she wanted to improve, however, the new director also has a personal desire to see the LGH reach its potential.

"My son lives here with his wife and new babies, so I was keen to come and be part of the family," she said.

"I was aware Launceston was regularly in the media around the ramping and things like that, and I felt I could offer something and one of the dedications I have is around ensuring that my family have a good hospital system to attend.

"It's really a commitment to the community and ensuring that the hospital is functioning as best it can."

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