Page 3178 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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But there is usually, as I have learned, and in my time in the Assembly, two sides to every story and also a fine line between management direction and staff feeling that those directions are unfair. I think that will always be a bit of a grey area in relation to a high stress and high pressure work environment. All the indicators are there that the workplace bullying is treated seriously and that staff have the appropriate supports in place to pursue those issues should they arise in the workplace.
Canberra Hospital—emergency department data
MR DOSZPOT: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, on 1 May 2012 you stated, in response to a question on notice about data manipulation of emergency department records at the Canberra Hospital:
There are internal and external validation processes that are robust.
The Auditor-General found in her report on emergency department performance in relation to records:
There is a lack of governance and administrative accountability for this system.
Minister, whose responsibility is it to ensure that there is governance and accountability in the data systems used in ACT Health?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Mr Doszpot for the question. A number of the recommendations that have flowed from the Auditor-General’s report are being implemented across the Health Directorate, and indeed some additional recommendations or additional decisions that I have taken, including, in terms of internal validation, improving the connection from the hospital to the Health Directorate through the recruitment of a director of data integrity. So these are in addition to the Auditor-General’s recommendations. But it is very much part of my suite of responsibilities to make sure that where deficiencies are identified they are responded to quickly and measures are put in place to stop these issues occurring again.
I should say that whilst there were deficiencies in the EDIS system—and some of that is explained by the origins of the EDIS system, in that it was there for patients rather than for performance—and we need to respond to those, there were a range of internal validation processes. Unfortunately in this case those validation processes were circumvented by the officer who amended some of the data.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot, a supplementary.
MR DOSZPOT: Minister, the Auditor-General found that the poor systems and practices in place in regard to data created an opportunity for someone to manipulate results 11,700 times. Do you take responsibility for allowing this opportunity to be created?
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