The Territory has made a good start in laying the foundations for systemic cultural reform in the public health system but there is still a lot of work to do, according to an independent review.
Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith introduced the second annual Review into the implementation of recommendations from the March 2019 Final Report: Independent Review into the Workplace Culture within ACT Public Health Services, which showed the ACT Health Directorate, Canberra Health Services and Calvary Public Hospital Bruce had made good progress.
“We know that improving culture is not something that happens overnight and I am pleased that the annual Review confirms we have built strong foundations for system-wide reform,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“However, feedback from staff tells us we have more work to do to establish expectations of positive workplace behaviour and to build leadership and management capability to uphold those expectations in practice,” she said.
“We also know that completing the 20 recommendations is not the end of the culture reform journey and we are committed to continuing this vital work with our public health system staff.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said that, in the final year of the recommendation implementation program, reform actions would transition from the program’s specific actions to a focus on making culture improvement part of normal business.
The Minister said Government had completed eight out of 20 recommendations and made “significant progress” on the other 12 in the first two years of its three-year implementation program.
Recommendations in the Culture in the ACT Health Public System: Second Annual Review include setting clear expectations of positive workplace behaviour at all levels; developing clinical leadership capability and increasing frontline clinical staff involvement; more opportunities for collaboration across the public health system; and performance indicators to measure progress towards a successful health service.
The 67-page Second Annual Review Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
