AMA ACT says senior doctors at Calvary want to 'defend and preserve' workplace culture

The AMA held another meeting with senior medical staff last week and the association's ACT president Walter Abhayaratna said a key message was staff did not want the Canberra Hospital culture imposed on them.

"The senior doctors want to defend and preserve the workplace culture in Calvary. They're not against collaboration but they don't want structures simply imposed on them," he said.

"The trust deficit is significant and the ACT government will need to work hard to bridge the gap."

The AMA has previously criticised the short time frame for the acquisition and the fact Calvary staff were not consulted about the takeover.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have also expressed similar concerns at the lack of consultation and have even claimed this went against the ACT's nursing and midwifery enterprise agreement.

Professor Abhayaratna said progress had been made with the ACT government to ensure the transition was done "sensitively and fairly" but staff still remain wary.

He said doctors who attended last week's meeting wanted to ensure Calvary stood apart from Canberra Health Services and the governance of the hospital needed to be sorted as a priority.

"A message that came through clearly was the strong affiliation the senior doctors feel for their hospital and the need to maintain the Calvary workplace culture post-acquisition," Professor Abhayaratna said.

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Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer said, on the day the acquisition was announced, the government would work to maintain the culture at Calvary.

He said there were cultural differences between hospitals, even those run by the same organisation. Mr Peffer also said there were also different subcultures among hospital wards.

"The Canberra Hospital is markedly different from the University of Canberra Hospital but we're all part of the same team and Calvary will be exactly the same," he said.

"You've got a smaller acute hospital that's had a big impact in providing care for the territory for some time. It's got that smaller hospital feel about it and we'll work very hard with the team to preserve all of the things that great workforce values in their current workplace."

There was a major review in 2019 into workplace culture in the ACT's public health system and opponents have pointed to this to say the government is ill-equipped to handle the takeover.

The report found widespread bullying and harassment, inefficient procedures to deal with complaints, poor leadership throughout the territory's health system and inappropriate human resource practices.

But Calvary's public hospital was also included in the review and 17 per cent of all those surveyed for the review worked at the Bruce hospital.

"The survey results were similar across all three arms of the ACT public health system (ie Canberra Health Services, Calvary Public Hospital and the Health Directorate)," the report said.

Legislation to compulsorily acquire the Bruce public hospital is expected to pass the territory's Legislative Assembly this Wednesday.

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