Page 2433 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 30 July 2019
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capacity. Deadly ligature points were and are in the process of being removed from the adult mental health unit, which is putting more pressure on nursing staff.
The pressure that the staff at the adult mental health unit experience increases when you realise the difficult problems of the patients in that unit and the possible problems caused by delays in treatment. Earlier this year the independent review into health culture delivered its final review, and the outcomes were not good. Twelve per cent of staff said that they had been subjected to physical harm, sexual harassment or abuse at work. Nearly half of the people who had been subjected to this kind of treatment said that the offender was a work colleague, while members of the public made up 40 per cent of the occasions of harassment and abuse.
The handling of complaints by staff was inefficient. There were inefficient and inappropriate human resources practices, including recruitment, and there was inadequate training in good workplace relations. Management at ACT Health and the Canberra Health Services did not make timely decisions and there was widespread criticism of management and leadership at all levels of the health system, all the way up to the minister.
Only 22 per cent of staff had confidence in the processes in place in the ACT public health system. I will repeat that for the benefit of Mr Gupta: only 22 per cent of staff had confidence in the processes in place in the ACT health system to deal with workplace culture.
The new Minister for Health and the Minister for Mental Health face significant challenges over the next 18 months. Minister Stephen-Smith and Minister Rattenbury have to tackle the serious problems caused by years of neglect by their predecessors. They have to clean up the toxic cultures in many areas of the public health system. The hardworking staff, including nurses, in our public health system are relying on these ministers and senior public servants to fix the health system.
When you speak with nurses and other victims of bullying in our public health system, you realise the huge impact it has had on them. I reflected only last week that probably the most difficult time that I have experienced in my office, and my staff have experienced, over what is coming up to 18 years in the Legislative Assembly has been the time since I became the shadow minister for health and the time that we have spent in dealing with victims of bullying and harassment in the health system.
It has been harrowing for my staff because they are the ones who are at the front line, who pick up the phone and maybe engage in a phone call with someone who is at the point of suicide, and that conversation may go on for an hour or more. My staff had not been trained for that and had not anticipated the number of complaints that we received.
That is why we on this side worked so hard to get an independent inquiry into bullying, harassment and workplace culture. And, yes, Mr Gupta, and Mr Assistant Speaker, we should recognise the importance, expertise, commitment and skills of our nurses, but in doing so we cannot put on our rose-coloured glasses and parrot the
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