Canberra's health system bullying and culture overhaul at risk

The group formed to oversee the changes has not formally met since June, despite a pledge to meet at least once every two months.

The revelations come from government documents and meeting minutes from the ongoing response to the scathing 2019 review.

ACT Health's own risk register has revealed there is a high risk the recommendations of the culture review will not be delivered.

This had the potential to damage the system's ability to attract a capable workforce as well as cause harm to staff resulting from bullying and harassment, the document said.

The risk status - already high - is listed as deteriorating.

However, an ACT Health spokesman said the health system was not concerned the recommendations would not be implemented in a timely way.

"The ACT Health Directorate, Canberra Health Services and Calvary Public Hospital continue to work towards sustainable culture improvement and have made solid progress in implementing the recommendations of the review," he said.

Canberra hospitals have for many years been dogged by claims of deeply embedded issues with poor culture, bullying and harassment.

After resisting calls for a royal commission type inquiry into the health system, the government in 2018 commissioned an external review of the system's workplace culture.

he damning review found inappropriate behaviour was widespread and morale was low across the system.

As a result of the review, a culture review implementation committee was established to keep the organisation on track in overhauling its culture.

Minutes from the committee's last meeting in June showed there were 48 identified risks around the culture overhaul.

Six of these have been rated as high risk.

Among other high risks revealed in the oversight group's minutes was an inconsistent approach to changing the culture, and a lack of sharing information.

The minutes revealed the health system has also been grappling with a loss of key staff.

"This has resulted in organisations reprioritising workloads, upskilling staff to fill gaps, and establishing contingencies," the meeting notes said.

The cost of the program to overhaul the health system's culture is also at risk of blowing out, the documents reveal.

The oversight group is supposed to formally meet once every two months, but has not since June.

It is made up of stakeholders, unions, health executives and the health minister.

A spokesman for ACT Health said it was not due to meet again until next year.

"While the culture review oversight group has not held a formal meeting since June it has met in alternate forums during this time, including a facilitated workshop in August and an informal meeting held during the caretaker period in October," he said.

The spokesman said there were a range of mitigations in place to minimise the impact of key staff leaving.

"Frequent communications, forward planning and collaboration across the organisations ensures a consistent and continuous approach to implementing the recommendations of the review," he said.

Unions and representative groups say there has anecdotally been an improvement in culture among the senior executives, the documents said.

However, there is more work to be done at the middle management level.

It comes amid ongoing issues among Canberra's junior doctors, with a number of recent reports revealing poor working conditions and morale.

The director general of ACT Health, Michael De'Ath, resigned in April this year.

A replacement has not yet been recruited.

Deputy director general Kylie Jonasson was initially appointed to the role on an interim basis for six months.

Her contract has recently been extended.