A government plan to remove about 45 people from senior leadership roles across two of the Northern Territory's largest hospitals and force them to re-apply for their jobs has been put on pause, just months after it was announced.
In an internal email to staff on Thursday, seen by the ABC, the NT Health Department said it would halt the "divisional structure reform" while it worked to overcome ongoing issues within the sector.
The Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals have been plagued by multiple "code yellow" emergencies since the beginning of the year due to capacity issues.
When the "restructure" was first announced in July, the territory's branch of the Australian Medical Association said the plan would create "significant anxiety" in an already stretched health system.
At the time, the government said no senior staff members would be sacked as a result of the changes.
System under pressure
In the email to staff, NT Health's acting chief executive Marco Briceno acknowledged the issues within the sector.
"Given the challenges we are facing, we require stable leadership, team work, agile decision-making and collaboration over the coming months," he wrote.
"I am also conscious of the pressures that our system is under, and that the changes we will be experiencing under the new governance structures may create extra unsteadiness."
The department did not provide an exact timeline for when the restructure would be revisited, but Dr Briceno told staff it would be a "priority for next year".
NT Health's current priority, he said, was "improving service delivery and performance across our health network by implementing our operational and strategic plans".
In another internal email to staff a week earlier, Dr Briceno expanded on the "difficulties" facing NT Health, which included workforce demands and COVID-related impacts.
The department told the ABC that none of the 45 roles set to be impacted by the changes had been removed or altered since the announcement.
"No one is being sacked — we are not losing any hardworking health staff," Health Minister Natasha Fyles said in a statement.
"NT Health are undertaking a restructure, which will continue in 2023."
Opposition says restructuring 'a bad idea'
The opposition's health spokesman Bill Yan said the planned restructuring would "create undue problems" for the health sector.
"It was a pity that the health minister and the previous CEO of health actually didn't listen to the people in health or listen to the CLP [Country Liberal Party] when we said it was a bad idea to be doing this," he said.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) and the AMA have also previously accused the department of "poor communication" around the plan and blame-shifting over the problems facing the sector.
"Removing experienced clinicians from their roles is not going to solve double-bunked emergency departments, or two-year waiting lists for surgery," ASMOF NT president Thomas Fowles said in July.
Dr Briceno, who was not the chief executive at the time the plan was announced, thanked staff in the email for their "contributions and feedback during the consultations".
A new strategic plan for NT Health is due to be released soon, according to the department, after which the changes will be revisited.
