Page 3582 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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(b) that with regard to the obstetrics department, urgent action is required for the hospital to retain its high clinical standard;
(c) that as late as February 2010, the Minister and senior ACT Health officials repeatedly denied that there were any problems at TCH or that any complaints had been made;
(d) that the Minister attacked the doctors who raised the serious concerns accusing them of ‘doctor politics’ and ‘mudslinging’;
(e) that the Minister and Chief Minister attempted to intimidate the doctors who raised the serious concerns by threatening to audit all complaints to the medical board over the past 10 years that involve obstetricians;
(f) that the clinical review into obstetrics and the review into bullying were only reluctantly established by the Government after significant pressure from the media and the Opposition;
(g) that despite the review finding that numerous complaints were made by staff and that they were ‘systematically’ ignored by TCH management, the Minister refused to accept any responsibility and blamed the staff for not having made complaints, stating on 9 August 2010 that ‘you can’t investigate allegations that don’t exist’; and
(h) that significant concerns remain in the community and amongst staff that the Minister and/or senior bureaucrats have, through their actions and misleading statements, attempted to cover up the serious problems at TCH that are addressed in the report; and
(2) calls on the Minister to:
(a) apologise in writing to all obstetrics staff employed at TCH in the last three years for her and ACT Health’s failure to adequately address their concerns and for her ongoing attacks on their credibility;
(b) apologise to the Assembly and to the community by the close of business on 19 August 2010 for her repeated misleading statements that no complaints had been made and that there were no issues that needed to be addressed in obstetrics at TCH; and
(c) ensure that the bullying review is released in full, with only personal information deleted, to ensure that staff at TCH and the public have confidence that the Minister and senior ACT Health bureaucrats are not continuing to ignore serious allegations of poor conduct at TCH.
We come to this issue once again because it is a very serious issue. This goes to the heart of our health system. It goes to patient safety. It goes to staff safety and it goes to whether we have a health and hospital system that we can trust and rely upon or one that is under increasing stress and pressure not just because of patient demand but because of failures within management to address very serious issues of harassment.
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