Page 3112 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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We have heard many stories over the past years about lives broken, careers ruined, patients suffering—all while Katy Gallagher is denying their stories, their complaints, and the very truthfulness of their cases. All too often it is Katy Gallagher who has not told the truth.
There are many indicators of the disastrous mismanagement of health, but the most troubling are those that involve deceit and misleading of the public, and Katy Gallagher has been at the centre of them.
In December 2010, it was reported that nine obstetricians had quit—walked out the door, all at once and all for the same reason: the bullying and management of their department. How did Katy Gallagher respond? She attacked the doctors. She called their complaints “mud-slinging” and “doctor politics”.
Then, as a direct result of the Canberra Liberals doing our job and holding the government to account, Katy Gallagher let slip the now infamous statement: she admitted there had been a 10-year war in her department. Ten years of fighting, that she had not addressed, that resulted in nine doctors walking out the door.
Then we had the charade that was the investigation. A private investigation. A secret investigation. An investigation that leaked emails revealed was utterly compromised by politics. Some of the emails show the flaws in the selection process. I quote:
… the doctors discuss various candidates for seats on the board, whether or not they were ‘fans’ of obstetrics and if they would ‘suit’ the cause.
That is a disgraceful process. No wonder the doctors feared business as usual, as reported on 10 December:
… the junior doctors who put their hands up and said they felt bullied now feel hopeless … A number of staff … said there’s fear and dread of what’s going to happen …
In fact in December 2010, they were so incensed by the handling of the issue that, in an unprecedented move, doctors demanded the dismissal of Katy Gallagher. Andrew Foote, chairman of the ACT branch of the royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists, 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.
Peter Hughes, one of the ACT visiting medical officers, knew that Canberra was falling way behind, and wrote to Jon Stanhope to sack Katy Gallagher. About the secret inquiry, he said:
It is almost unheard of for the Minister to abrogate responsibility and let the public servants carry out improvements … these public servants are the same ones who failed to report complaints about bullying in the first place.
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