Page 3583 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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In February this year a number of obstetricians came forward and made some very serious complaints in the media, on the ABC, about what was going on at the Canberra Hospital in obstetrics. Their concerns were about a number of things, but principally they were about patient safety. They were concerned that if the situation at the Canberra Hospital were to continue, because of the degrading work conditions and situation there, this could lead to potential harm to patients.
They came forward with allegations of a toxic workplace culture and they had some concerns about staff sustainability at the Canberra Hospital—about doctors leaving and others refusing to work at the Canberra Hospital, about pressure being put on the staff at the Canberra Hospital, increased workloads and, as a result of all that, the increased risk.
All of that has been proven in the report that was tabled on 5 August to be correct. The allegations, the serious concerns that they raised, were all found in the report which was conducted by an independent panel of, I think, four members external to the ACT health system to be entirely valid. The allegations that were made by the obstetricians were prominent throughout the media but the minister denied at that time that there were actually any legitimate concerns.
Although very articulate and, I think, measured concerns were put forward by a number of obstetricians, she refused to accept what were proven to be entirely legitimate and entirely truthful concerns. As we know and as we have discussed in this Assembly previously, she described these concerns as mud-slinging and as doctor politics. She described the complaints that had been made as having no substantiation. It is difficult to correlate the minister’s comments with the findings of the report that she actually commissioned herself.
What she actually did was pick sides before the report had had a chance to be tabled—in fact, before the inquiry actually started. She was actually publicly attacking the doctors that made the complaints. She was denigrating them in the media and she was basically saying that there was nothing to see here. She said: “There is no problem. This is mud-slinging. This is doctor politics. This is all about a 10-year war we have known about for some time.”
The doctors did not like that. Numerous doctors, after that ABC issue had occurred and they had heard the minister in the media, came forward to me and said: “You have got to do something. The minister is wrong. There is a real problem there at the Canberra Hospital. Please make sure that something is done.” Those comments were made publicly by Andrew Foote, who is the chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He said, “We are concerned that the minister is trivialising this issue and writing it off as doctor politics when it is really about patient safety and the safety of women and babies.”
Now we know as well that Katy Gallagher and Jon Stanhope then went one step further. They tried to have the complaints that have been made over the last 10 years to the Medical Board dug up and trawled over in a dirt digging exercise. That was called for by Jon Stanhope. Katy Gallagher backed it and that was absolutely
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