Page 1523 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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ACT Health last week—one at Canberra Hospital and one at ACT Health headquarters in Woden.
The organisational change is designed to bring greater efficiencies for clinical and medical staff, streamline service delivery and further reinforce the goals of the territory-wide health services framework. To achieve these, the interim director-general has commenced a body of work to further define the principles that will underpin the establishment of the two organisations, conduct research into options for the relationship between the governance of the new entities, and, most importantly, engage with staff, community partners and stakeholders throughout the process to ensure that we arrive at a model that will work on the ground for both staff and ACT health consumers.
We have the benefit of being the last jurisdiction in this country to undertake this change and, as such, we are able to draw on the best of what works and what does not around Australia. But, importantly, we will design a model in consultation with staff and stakeholders which works for our city and one that enables a clear focus on efficient and effective service delivery, builds a positive culture and drives service improvement. Indeed this is an exciting and important time for our health system.
It is also timely and prudent for ACT Health to pause to closely consider and re-evaluate some of its current strategic work. It is important that the heads of the two new organisations are involved in and can influence these considerations. Work is already underway to recruit the heads of both organisations. To allow the hospital’s new chief executive to closely evaluate the organisation’s structure and decide how best to move forward, the internal organisational realignment at Canberra Hospital and health services that was consulted with staff in late 2017 and early 2018 will be slowed until post 1 October, with an interim organisational structure being finalised with staff by late May.
Having met many ACT Health staff over the past two years, it was a privilege last week to share a couple of hours with hundreds more. It was a chance to outline the issues I have spoken about this morning and also to talk with them about accreditation. I was able to pass on the feedback I received from many in our community who expressed their gratitude and thanks in big and small ways for the ACT Health staff who care for them—whether that is from a one-off event or from what is sometimes years of treatment and support. I was also able to share with them my view expressed earlier that the governance of ACT Health has let them down in recent times, that the reforms underway since 2015 have not fully achieved what the government intended, and that while we have a number of challenges ahead I know they have enormous professional and personal commitment to delivering high quality health care for our community.
It is clear to me that ACT Health staff wish to be genuinely included in the decisions affecting their organisation. The next few months will include building trust through genuine engagement, and I have asked the interim director-general—who has an excellent track record on these issues—and ACT Health senior staff to ensure this occurs and is a foundation of both new organisations.
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