Page 647 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
that as a result of these concerns, nine doctors have recently left the Obstetrics Department and other doctors have stated that they are unwilling to work at TCH …
This is a worrying situation and warrants thorough investigation.
In a letter to the editor of the Canberra Times on 23 February, yesterday, Sally Allen of Garran said:
The doctors who have resigned from Canberra Hospital over the past year in response to the alleged “hostile environment” within the obstetrics and gynaecology unit are likely to have agonised over their decisions for a long time …
If you don’t want to jeopardise your career progress, you learn to keep your mouth shut and not complain too loudly.
Doctors who have spoken out and acted on this issue could find themselves blacklisted, and skilled obstetricians are unlikely to even consider Canberra Hospital as a place to work.
Ms Allen has hit the nail on the head. These professionals have invested huge amounts of time and energy into their careers, they take pride in their work, they have a sense of duty, and they have families that depend on them. If there is a threat or a perceived threat that speaking out will cause problems in their career, they may not do so. And who can blame them? Nobody wants to be in that situation.
Dr Ian Trethewey of Yarralumla added to the debate, through the Canberra Times on 18 February. He said:
For reasons that are probably political, the hospital has denied skilled and experienced local practitioners access to the clinical scene.
There are at least six or seven obstetricians in the ACT who are good at it. They are well-trained and are in private practice. They have been excluded from the public sphere by the policies of the ACT Government and the internal dynamics of the obstetric unit at the Canberra Hospital.
It is for these reasons, amongst others, that we must make sure we travel down the right avenue to determine the extent of the problems.
I find it absolutely amazing that the Chief Minister’s first defence in any situation is to hide behind public servants. In this very perverse way that Mr Stanhope addresses issues like this, he accuses us of having a go at public servants when in actual fact that is the very thing that Mr Stanhope is doing when he makes outrageous allegations like that. He is the one that is using public servants to shield himself from any issue. He is the one that hides behind public servants and says, “You cannot dare question the policies or our ability as a government to govern, because if you do so you will be attacking public servants.” That is always what he resorts to. You resort to it over and over again. This is what we get from the Chief Minister.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video