Page 942 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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The minister has made it absolutely clear that bullying and harassment have no place in the ACT health system, and is acting to root out any such ingrained negative work culture. Throughout the independent health workplace culture review process, the minister has made it very clear that she would both release interim and final reports, which she has done, and that she expected the review panel to speak with as many affected staff as possible throughout the entire organisation.
This process has been both timely and effective. Every staff member has had the chance to contribute, and many have taken up the opportunity. The panel certainly heard from a wide cross-section of employees and it developed a clear set of recommendations for the government to implement. Minister Fitzharris and the government have accepted all of these recommendations in principle, and the actions are now underway.
The AMA itself has recognised the value of this process, with the AMA’s ACT president noting that this review was “a necessary first step in ensuring that change occurs”, as well as confirming that clinicians continue to provide high-quality care to patients. The government and the AMA agree that this report points the way forward for Canberra Hospital, for Calvary public, for the University of Canberra Hospital, and indeed for ACT Health and Canberra Health Services.
This report, whilst important and valuable, is not the sole measure of the value of our health system. I will give just a few examples of improvements that are underway across the system now. Recently, the minister opened the territory’s third public hospital at the University of Canberra, a facility that delivers specialised care for people recovering from surgery and illness. Feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive about how the new hospital is helping them to get back their quality of life.
Last July the minister also opened the newly refurbished maternity ward at Calvary Public Hospital, a renewed facility that offers an excellent option for Canberra’s mothers-to-be to deliver their babies in the public system. The minister has also advocated for and won funding to support upgrades at Calvary Public Hospital, particularly at the expanded short-stay unit within the emergency department, as well as dedicating an investment of $122 million in core hospital services at Canberra Hospital, so that more Canberrans can get faster access to the care they need.
The necessary detailed planning is well underway for the revolutionary SPIRE centre at the Woden campus, the biggest single piece of health infrastructure to be delivered by any government in the history of self-government. The minister opened our third nurse-led walk-in centre in Gungahlin in September. Thousands of patients have already taken advantage of this convenient and caring service from our dedicated nurse team.
There is a program of investment in public health services across our city. It is a program coming at a time when the party of those opposite has been engaged, since 2014, in an exercise of dramatically cutting funding for public health services across this nation.
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