Page 3018 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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Let me return for a moment to this issue of culture. Mrs Dunne has reflected on it again today. I listened very carefully to what she had to say about her reluctance to bring complaints forward because of people’s fears about repercussions. I take at face value Mrs Dunne’s commentary on that. I think we need to collectively think about how we can address that, because it is highly problematic if complaints are coming in and stopping at Mrs Dunne’s office.
That is not a critique of Mrs Dunne; it is problematic in terms of actually trying to break this culture. This is the conversation I sought to have with Mrs Dunne as we walked up the stairs last week, and about which we had a further exchange yesterday. There is a serious issue here. I am very open to suggestions from Mrs Dunne on how we might deal with that, because it is not an acceptable situation going forward that Mrs Dunne’s office becomes a black hole for these things.
Mrs Dunne had a go at me yesterday for not being aware of the issues, but I cannot be aware of them—and neither can Minister Fitzharris—if they stop at Mrs Dunne’s office. I accept that she is doing that because people have asked her to respect their confidentiality, and it would be totally inappropriate for her not to respect that confidentiality. I do not critique that point. I raise the important policy question that if we are going to deal with this and if we want to get an effective outcome, we need to find a way to move past those things coming to a dead halt in Mrs Dunne’s office. I am open to suggestions on that. Certainly Minister Fitzharris and I are working hard to engender a culture in the organisation that gives people confidence that they can come forward. If there are other suggestions then we should hear them.
Clearly issues regarding interpersonal relationships and management arrangements can be complex and take some time to be worked through. However, progress is being made to address these issues. We have worked to address a number of the recommendations in the college’s report, and these are already underway in terms of specific issues arising in the radiology department. I hope the signals being sent by me, Minister Fitzharris and the director-general and by the acceptance of and action on these reports gives staff confidence that there is a clear intention to try to break these cultural issues.
I take this opportunity to reiterate my confidence in the leadership team at ACT Health in their efforts to set and be clear about a different direction. They have done a tremendous amount of work over recent months to address the issues of governance and culture that were identified in the hospital accreditation process. It was great to see this work acknowledged by the surveyors in their follow-up visit in July, with a draft report recognising ACT Health’s commitment to and focus on driving sustainable, positive change in the culture of the organisation.
They found that the organisation had moved from being fragmented and divided to being a cohesive organisation focused on teamwork and what is best for the patient. This is a remarkable turnaround in such a short period, and I believe the broader work that has been happening on governance and culture will have a direct flow-on effect to departments at the Canberra Hospital, including radiology.
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