Department heads at two of the Territory’s largest hospitals will be sacked in the coming days and forced to reapply for their positions, which the Australian Medical Association NT said is part of the “blame culture” of the current government that will negatively affect hospital operations.

AMA NT president Robert Parker made the surprise news public on ABC Radio Tuesday morning, claiming that he had heard on Monday night from “reliable sources” that every departmental head at the Royal Darwin Hospital will be sacked by Thursday and all bosses at Alice Springs Hospital sacked next Thursday.

Dr Parker said he believed the mass sackings were being carried out by NT Health chief executive Frank Daly to “punish the medical staff for what they perceive as a significant failure”, including the increased pressure on services in the emergency department and double bunking of patients.

“It means that there’s going to be a significant crisis of leadership,” he said.

“These doctors who are the heads of departments have been keeping the health system going for years and it’s been underfunded for years. And these senior doctors are the ones who kept the departments going and making adjustments to the day-to-day dealings with various governments, dealing with various bureaucracies and maintaining a health service for the Territory public.

“And if their jobs are suddenly declared vacant, and basically they’ve got to reapply for them, there’s significant anxiety and this indicates a significant lack of confidence, by the CEO in that senior medical group who have basically been keeping the Territory health system together for the last 15 to 20 years.”

Dr Parker said the chronic underfunding of the hospitals has been the cause of the failures and not the senior staff who have been forced to do more with less.

“It’s a blame culture and that significantly impacts on the morale, the confidence of the medical staff to keep going in their jobs,” he said.

The proposed senior staff sackings come as pressure increases on hospital staff after changes to GP clinics’ bulk-billing systems and a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

Acting Health Minister Nicole Manison’s office later confirmed to the ABC that a “restructure of the executive and senior leadership teams” is moving ahead at Darwin and Palmerston hospitals – not Alice Springs – but denied senior staff would be “sacked”, while then stating that “heads of department positions will be opened to an expression of interest and all incumbents are welcome to apply”.

The unnamed spokeswoman said the restructure would “revitalise” health and “build a modern, dynamic and sustainable health system”.

The Opposition CLP called on the Fyles Government to explain why senior staff would lose their positions now.

“We are most concerned with the impact of this decision on the stability, capability and operational capacity of our hospitals,” said CLP Health spokesman Bill Yan.

“A widespread sacking of staff that will throw hospital leadership into disarray is worrying at a time when we are in the midst of a terrible flu season, with COVID cases on the rise and when health staff are under pressure with staff shortages and added responsibilities.

“Is the Government trying to pass the blame onto department heads for its constant failures, or is it trying to silence critics within the Health Department? Why would a move like this even be considered during a period of high stress within the health system? The Fyles Government needs to be supporting our health workers at this critical time, not playing political games in our hospitals.”