A culture of threats, abuse and nepotism is uncovered in an extensive workplace review of Ballarat Health Services (BHS), with a union now considering possible class action. Two hundred staff were interviewed as part of the review commissioned by Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy in the wake of bullying complaints last year. In its findings, staff reported a culture of favouritism, where workers were yelled or screamed at by supervisors during handover, at team meetings, and in front of patients. Staff complained of having things thrown at them or dumped on their desk, with negative remarks made about race, sexuality and religion. Threats were also made when issues were raised, with staff told their certification was at risk. The report’s author Sarah Rey said the consistency and volume of the complaints was “confronting”, and cited “serious deficiencies in BHS culture and leadership, as well as gaps in BHS training, policies and practice”. New chair of the Ballarat Health Services board Rowena Coutts apologised to staff and said a range of measures would be adopted in response to the report. “I was shocked and deeply concerned about what had occurred,” she said. Ms Coutts said a lot of changes had already been made to the workplace. She confirmed six of the hospital’s nine executives had resigned in the past nine months, starting with the departure of the former chief executive Andrew Rowe in December. This week the hospital received the resignation of its director of mental health, Tamara Irish, which came off the back of resignations from the head of medical services, as well as executives in human resources and finance. The departure of the previous board chair, Andrew Faull, was announced early this year. Ms Coutts would not go into the reasons for the mass resignations. “I think it’s an opportunity, and I am optimistic about the future. We’ve got a newly-cast board, we’ve got a brand new CEO. “We’ve got this wonderfully dedicated and committed workforce, who have continued to deliver good patient care during what sometimes must’ve been very difficult circumstances and I think together there is a real resolve to change things.” The hospital said it would appoint a new complaints manager who would report directly to the hospital’s chief executive and give all former staff access to counselling. But Paul Healy from the Health and Community Services Union said it was not enough. “An apology is nice, and I think it’s a long time coming, but at the end of the day these people’s lives have been destroyed, they’ve lost money, they’ve lost sleep and the affect it’s had on them has just been horrendous,” he said. “It sounds like a class action might be the best way to go forward.”
