Page 3586 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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No complaints, specific complaints, have been brought to the attention of ACT Health.
She said that she would be happy to investigate any concerns. She went on:
We have an open approach and if there are concerns we clearly want to address them. But we can’t address them in the absence of information about what the concerns are.
We have the minister and the acting chief executive saying that no complaints have been made, but we have in this report all of the staff saying that for a protracted period they were making complaints. And we have the senior management of the hospital admitting that those complaints were made.
The acting chief executive did not know and the minister did not know. I do accept that. I do accept that, but they should have known. If they did know, that would be a very serious matter. My understanding is that the minister was oblivious to what was going on in the hospital, but she should have known and the chief executive should have known.
Peggy Brown said that there are a number of ways that staff can raise their concerns. She said, “They can raise them through management at the Canberra Hospital.” So she does acknowledge that those were legitimate complaints and that complaints can be made in a number of ways, including through the management of the Canberra Hospital. But she also denied that any complaints had been made.
I really do not understand what has gone wrong but quite clearly before this report was tabled the minister and the acting chief executive denied any complaints had been made. They were saying that those complaints can be made through a number of different processes, including to the management of the Canberra Hospital. They denied any complaints were made, but we have it in black and white from an independent report that was initiated by the minister that those complaints were made.
Even after the report was tabled, the minister has come out and said that you cannot investigate allegations that do not exist. You said that on WIN news.
Ms Gallagher: And what did I say after that?
MR HANSON: You talked about formal complaints, minister—
Ms Gallagher: And what did I say at the time—at the time?
MR HANSON: You may have been unaware of them. The point is that the minister may have been unaware of the complaints but the complaints were made. The fact that she was unaware of them, the fact that Peggy Brown was unaware of them, does not excuse the fact that they were wrong when in February they were saying no complaints were made, when actually complaints had been made. They may have been unaware of them but when they are out in the media saying no complaints had been made, that was wrong.
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