Page 2175 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2018
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discussion about how we will best come to some solutions of general appeal across the community to ensure we continue to deliver high quality maternity services and to support the staff in their working environment.
On 16 April Minister Fitzharris received a letter from a group of health professionals at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. The letter raised a long list of concerns about conditions at the Centenary hospital, including long wait times and daily overbookings for procedures such as inductions and epidurals; no privacy for labouring or unwell women waiting for rooms and that there was a long line of women waiting for rooms and labouring in inappropriate circumstances; women and babies being discharged inappropriately early with feeding, pain and other issues unaddressed; staff being unable to provide adequate breastfeeding support and cuts to Midcall; bullying being rife and part of the ongoing culture at the Centenary hospital; problems with staffing in the maternity assessment unit; and the neonatal intensive care unit often at capacity and short-staffed.
When the minister received this letter she deployed her army of 29½ spin doctors—I know that number because I asked the question on notice—and a meeting with staff was organised for the following day. I have obtained a copy of the relevant documents relating to that meeting under the Freedom of Information Act. I have a copy of a track changes document of talking points. Some of the amended talking points include: “We accept there is room for improvement”; “Some of these issues are already on our radar”; and “We acknowledge that as senior executives we need to do better.”
Another example is notes of a communication and incident briefing meeting on 17 April. It states that a senior executive expressed her surprise and sadness that the writers of the letter felt they had to take this action and felt they had to voice their concerns regarding their employment anonymously. She said she was sad they did not speak to others before going to the media and had taken this approach.
The senior official asked the people in the meeting to put up their hands if they had felt bullied in their workplace. One staff member said it was inappropriate for the senior official to ask the question in such a way and that the staff would be scared to come forward about bullying in such a forum. That staff member was absolutely right. The very action of the senior staffer was in itself bullying, and the person should have been counselled. It was clearly inappropriate for a senior executive to ask staff in a meeting of 41 people to say whether they had been bullied.
We have a culture of bullying and a culture of fear across the entire health system, including the maternity services. There are serious concerns about the mental health of many staff who are under constant pressure, which can largely be attributed to bullying and harassment in the health system itself. Those of us who have been here long enough will remember the former minister, Katy Gallagher, speaking a few years ago about what was then the 10-year war in obstetrics, as she called it. There is a long history of bullying in maternity services.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I cannot tell you the number of times that members of the public have come to me and told me they are employed in the health department and
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