Page 4217 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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And this is the most important recommendation by this very experienced ambulance officer who was in charge of the Ambulance Service at the time and had knowledge of all of the events surrounding the matter:
That you note that in my opinion, whilst there appears to be a prima facie reason to believe that the Officer may have breached official procedures and therefore he may have failed to fulfil his duties as an Officer employed under the Public Service Act, my judgement is that the matter does not need to proceed further. Officer ... will be counselled in regard to the need for rigid adherence to operational procedures and the need for due care and attention to requests for assistance.
Mr Humphries: Why is this officer so special, Wayne? Why are you protecting him?
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries says, "Why is this officer so special?". I will tell you why officers of the Ambulance Service are so special. They provide a quality service to the people of the ACT, a service which places a great deal of stress on those officers. The mere act of taking an emergency call, for those that have had the experience, is a matter of some stress, and it is necessary for those officers to be under a strict discipline in relation to those matters at all times. What has happened is that the acting director of the Ambulance Service, a responsible and competent officer, has made a judgment in relation to the matter.
Those officers are so special to me that I will not let politicians play around with their future. The matter is one for responsible managers. Individual officers will not be dragged out into the open by irresponsible politicians. This is a management matter and it should be left as it is. It is not up to Ministers to interfere with these sorts of investigations; it is up to responsible managers to deal with them. In my view, the management have properly investigated the matter. As far as I am aware, the officer was counselled in relation to the matter, and management is satisfied that that process was adequate.
For Mr Humphries to now attempt to drag the matter on is irresponsible in the extreme. It will do no good to the Ambulance Service. Already the Ambulance Service has been placed under a great deal of stress because Mr Humphries and his Government failed to provide adequate resources to them. They were placed under a great deal of stress because of the absence of staff to properly man ambulances; they were criticised because they were unable to provide emergency services from time to time - all because of the actions of the failed former Health Minister.
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