Page 1047 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019

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ACT Health—workplace culture
(Question No 2124)

Mrs Dunne asked the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, upon notice, on 15 February 2019:

(1) Has (a) the Minister, (b) the Minister’s office, (c) ACT Health or (d) Canberra Health Services, been given any information that reveals or has the potential to reveal (i) specific matters individuals have submitted, in any form, to the Independent Review into the workplace culture within ACT public health services or (ii) the identity of persons making those submissions; if so, (A) what is the nature of the information provided, (B) why was it provided and (C) what do the recipients intend to do with the information provided.

(2) What security arrangements are in place within the Review secretariat to ensure submissions made, in any form, to the Review are and will be kept confidential to the Review panel.

(3) What security arrangements will be in place to ensure the material submitted to the Review will not be revealed to any person after the Review is complete and the Review panel and secretariat disbanded.

Ms Fitzharris: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1)

(i) The Office of the Review has advised that no information that reveals or has the potential to reveal specific matters individuals have submitted to the Independent Review, or the identity of persons making those submissions, has been provided to the Minister or the Ministers Office by this Office.

(ii) The Office of the Review has advised that in a small number of cases the Review referred specific matters individuals had raised including their identity to the Director General (DG) ACT Health, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Canberra Health Services (CHS) where the individual/s agreed to that information being provided.

The information provided by the Office of the Review related to ongoing/current workplace culture issues within the Health Directorate or CHS. The information was provided with the agreement of the individual/s involved to ensure the relevant Executive (DG or CEO) was aware of the issue and could take necessary steps to address it.

(2) The protection of people’s confidentiality and privacy is paramount to the Independent Panel and Office of the Review. All submissions were accepted and dealt with in accordance with the requests of those that made the submission.

The staffing working in the Office of the Review were drawn from across the Commonwealth and ACT Public Service so that ACT health staff can be confident in the integrity and independence of the submission process.

A Conflict of Interest process was implemented to ensure staff did not review submission content pertaining to individuals they knew personally or professionally.


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