Page 4063 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 23 October 2018
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the last financial year the total number of bullying and harassment contacts in ACT Health were: 53 received by people in culture; 47 contacts received by ACT Health respect, equity and diversity contact officers; and 107 received through Riskman.
There were 160 reports of bullying or harassment where a preliminary investigation under section H of the ACT public service enterprise agreement was commenced. Preliminary assessments are conducted at the local level with the support and guidance of staff in the people and culture division. Two reports of bullying or harassment resulted in a misconduct process under section H of the ACT public service enterprise agreement. Of these two processes, one was found to breach section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act and, as at 30 June, two misconduct processes were currently underway or being investigated.
At Calvary Public Hospital there were seven reports of bullying or harassment where a preliminary assessment under section H of the ACT public sector enterprise agreement was commenced. Three reports of bullying or harassment resulted in a misconduct process under section H of the enterprise agreement, with all three being found to breach section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act.
As at 30 June one misconduct process is currently underway or being investigated. While these figures are unacceptable I think they do show that our complaints processes are working and resulting in appropriate action being taken.
Of course, workplace culture is larger than individual issues. And in an organisation, particularly as complex as Canberra Health Services, there will be subcultures and challenging behaviours that we must work to improve wherever possible.
In March this year, as members well know, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards conducted an organisation-wide survey of ACT Health as part of the reaccreditation process. It is fair to say that this site visit and the resulting “not met” report were the catalyst for a profound shift in the organisation, one which not only resulted in an outstanding accreditation result that has seen full reaccreditation of ACT Health and Canberra Hospital for the maximum of three years but also a glowing external assessment of ACT Health’s shift in culture, leadership and commitment to continue this improvement.
As I mentioned before, it was in March 2018 that the Minister for Mental Health and I announced that ACT Health would become two distinct organisations from 1 October. This reform will build on the outstanding improvements we have seen through the reaccreditation process and will be an opportunity to reset and refocus both organisations on their core purpose and values. It will also provide an opportunity to establish separate workplace cultures for Canberra Health Services and the ACT Health Directorate, which, on the face of it, are very distinct organisations with very different remits.
As part of the transition, the Director-General of the ACT Health Directorate has been leading an extensive piece of work focused on the cultural needs of the organisations, in particular for the first six months of operation. Recently a number of significant
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