Page 1477 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 2021
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Just a few months ago, I attended the emergency department with a friend and spoke to a junior doctor who was very kind and very professional. After so professionally looking after my friend, at the end of the visit I had the opportunity as we walked out to ask him about his experiences in the public health system. I asked him if since the beginning of the year things were improving at all.
He told me that the long hours are not the biggest issue but that the bullying and harsh treatment by superiors was wearing him thin—and his colleagues. He said that if it happened occasionally, he could probably manage; but when it happens on a regular basis, it becomes professionally very difficult to go on.
This junior doctor’s experience is all too common in the health system. Unfortunately, it is continuing to happen some 800 days since the Independent Review into Workplace Culture within the ACT Public Health Services was completed.
This was a review that, in September 2018, the then Minister for Health and Wellbeing was very reluctantly committed to. She only committed to the independent review after months of campaigning from the opposition and health stakeholders who had had enough. The review revealed a deep desire from staff and the community for significant change.
The review found that there were inappropriate behaviours, bullying and harassment in the workplace; inefficient procedures and processes, including complaints handling; inadequate training in dealing with inappropriate workplace practices; an inability to make timely decisions; poor leadership and management at many levels throughout the ACT public health system; and inefficient and inappropriate human resource practices, including in recruitment.
Since the review’s release, we have all hoped sincerely and watched to see if there is a real turnaround in the culture. The minister committed to providing updates biannually to track work undertaken. These regular statements in the chamber have updated us on the number of times the various established committees have met and the work they are doing. I am appreciative of these updates, but what is missing is concrete evidence of changes for staff on the ground. Concrete change should have happened by now, as it has been 800 days.
The report noted that there are, and always have been, some examples of things working well and some shining lights in the ACT’s public health system which have a different and healthier culture. However, having accepted that—even after much demand from staff and the opposition to take the issue, deal with it and turn it around—it is essential that along the way the progress of those affected is measured.
I accept that tracking progress on the review from outside the system can be somewhat difficult. That is why we look closely at the minister’s words. I also look closely at the words of those inside, working on the ground. I know from the many, seemingly unending, complaints that I receive, and the descriptions of what individual staff and units within the public health system say they are experiencing, that those on the ground are impacted most by the culture in health. They are on the receiving end of it, and they know best.
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