Page 748 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 March 2019
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The panel has now provided its final report to me, which was publicly released on 7 March and which has now been tabled in the Assembly. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding work that panel chair, Mick Reid, and his fellow panel members, Fiona Brew and Professor David Watters, have done. I thank them for the considerable knowledge and expertise they brought to this task, their compassion for staff and their candour to the ACT government.
Over 2000 people engaged in the process and the panel members held close to 100 meetings and workshops during the course of the review. Through the consultation process the panel received close to 400 submissions, held around 55 in-person meetings, 19 phone meetings and 27 workshops. These numbers are a testament to the confidence staff had in the panel to maintain their privacy and formulate appropriate recommendations.
The government has agreed to all of the recommendations of the final report in principle. Minister Rattenbury and I, as well as the director-general and CEOs of Canberra Health Services, Calvary Public Hospital and ACT Health will now carefully consider the final report’s contents and how best to implement the recommendations. As per the terms of reference, the government will also table a response to the final report in the Assembly within three months and provide regular reports to update on progress against the recommendation.
Our ambition is to build a happier and healthier health service territory wide. We have begun that journey after last year’s changes, but the final report has clearly provided a safe way for people to raise concerns they previously had not been able to. The government recognises the importance of working closely with staff and stakeholders to ensure the recommendations are implemented in a way that drives the change we need to see. I particularly welcome the recommendation to chair the oversight committee and to combine with key stakeholder and representative bodies to make a shared public statement of commitment. To this end I have asked the cultural review oversight group, which I will chair, to meet by the end of March. Through the establishment of strong governance processes we will ensure territory-wide implementation is effective and efficient and that staff and stakeholders are genuinely engaged.
I do not shy away from the fact that the report at times makes difficult reading. It is disappointing to read that staff working within our health system have experienced bullying, intimidation and harassment. It is disappointing to read that organisations have not been effectively addressing concerns raised by staff and that governance and complaints handling processes were inadequate.
I have said on many occasions and reiterate that the negative behaviours being experienced by staff within the ACT public health system are unacceptable, and we are committed to making sure that these stop. This journey of change started last year with the most significant governance reform in decades through the creation of the ACT Health Directorate to lead the territory-wide strategic and policy direction of the health system, and Canberra Health Services to deliver high quality, acute and non-acute health services to the community. I was pleased that much of the good work
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