Page 2493 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018
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There is a lack of clinical control over the department with clinical leaders having minimal involvement with the recruitment of new trainees, rostering of the clinical staff and other significant departmental decisions.
The accreditation report said:
The internal political issues make working in the department difficult and cause low morale amongst staff.
The report further noted:
In 2017 there was a significant change to the trainee recruitment process … and existing trainees were required to apply and interview for their positions, in competition with new applicants. There was a significant amount of confusion and stress experienced by trainees during this process with concerns it was being used as a performance management tool with a lack of clear information coming from the department and hospital management.
In particular, the report noted with serious concern that a non-clinical person chaired the recruitment panel and that that is in breach of the college’s trainee selection guidelines for new recruitment. How simple would it have been to communicate with staff and trainees and take them along on the journey with them, for whatever reason they needed to assess or reassess people’s performance?
The most concerning aspect of this report is that patient safety was put at risk. Here we have a culture embroiled in internal politics, poor relationships, non-clinical staff being involved where they should not, trainees facing unexplained processes, trainees not being properly supervised and a range of issues that have the bottom line of putting patient safety at risk.
Then there was the open letter from staff at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. This drew an extraordinary reaction through an open letter to the Canberra Times from senior management. The very fact that management decided to publish this letter is, in itself, a demonstration of the use of bullying tactics to intimidate staff.
I have quoted a few examples here. There are many more, which if time allows I will go to. I want to reflect on some of the things that have been described to me as bullying. There are very many tools that people have in their repertoire. It is often subtle things like eye-rolling when someone makes a suggestion and clicking from senior management to show that they do not approve.
If people are in the bad books, they do not get access to decent rosters. They are criticised openly in their workplaces. If they want to get access to leave, they are at the bottom of the pile. They are often told, “You cannot have leave during school holiday periods” although they are supposed to be a flexible and family friendly workplace. All these issues amount to bullying and intimidation.
We now have a minister—we will see it here in the comments from Mr Rattenbury today—saying that we have safe and respectful pathways for dealing with bullying
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