Page 3177 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Seselja and Ms Gallagher, thank you. I believe there is an imputation in Ms Gallagher’s comments and I ask you to withdraw and to reframe your remarks.
MS GALLAGHER: I am happy to withdraw but I will check the Hansard that Mrs Dunne refers to and the context in which those comments were made before answering.
MS PORTER: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, what organisational culture exists in the new women’s and children’s hospital in relation to obstetrics?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Porter for the question. Yesterday the wonderful staff at Canberra Hospital managed a very complicated move from an old hospital into a new hospital. I think 57 or 58 patients were moved during the course of the day, including 17 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.
It is fair to say that the women’s and children’s area of health has been undergoing significant change, both in implementing new models of care for the provision of health services and also through some of the staffing changes that we have seen as a result of the issues that were raised through the inquiry into obstetrics. I know that there are still a number of people who work at the women’s and children’s who feel upset about some of the changes that occurred during that time and some of the departures that we saw, but I think there are also a number of good new additions to staff in the obstetrics unit as well. They are a very close-knit bunch; they do an amazing job. They deliver thousands of babies every year and look after thousands of mothers, and in this Assembly those staff deserve our support.
MR SESELJA: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Minister, what will you now do to support staff at the Canberra Hospital by ensuring that their concerns about workplace culture are listened to and addressed?
MS GALLAGHER: As I said, we have been putting a huge effort into this area, particularly in the last couple of years, and we are starting to see the benefits of that work. What we are seeing in the latest workplace culture survey is very significant increases—in fact, I think the biggest increases in the survey overall were a belief that the directorate takes allegations of bullying seriously and the preparedness of staff to raise issues around bullying within the workplace and feel that they would be adequately dealt with.
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