PATIENT and workplace safety culture within Ballarat Health Services has come under fire a Victorian Auditor-General's Office report released this week and tabled before parliament.
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BHS has accepted all 14 recommendations directed at the organisation, however, BHS chief medical officer Matthew Hadfield questioned the full value of a report based predominantly on a limited snapshot and results from a survey made two years ago.
While Dr Hadfield welcomed assessment and a chance for refine and improve clinical healthcare, he was confident in BHS staff, particularly the quality department's vast experience to keep improving quality changes with less resources than bigger, metropolitan hospitals.
VAGO's clinical governance in health services report found BHS was not handling serious incident investigations promptly enough with 82 per cent outside the target time frame. It was reported BHS averaged 16 months to implement recommendations after a serious incident.
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The report ranked bottom BHS in both standards in comparison to Bacchus Marsh-based Djerriwarrh health, Melbourne and Peninsula health services. All four services had delays in process responses to serious incidents and all four cited this was due to a lack in "required staff capacity and capability".
"BHS typically took longer to implement its recommendations (16 months) and there is no distinct pattern as to why some recommendations took longer than others," the report read. "This further indicates that BHS is not acting early enough to prevent future harm to patients."
Dr Hadfield said this serious case reporting analysis was based on reporting to the board and not on a frontline operational level where issues were directly addressed. He said an increasing number of serious cases being reported within BHS was a mark that staff were confident and prepared to raise issues to managers.
This is in contrast to the report's finding that BHS had failed to do enough to encourage staff to speak up about safety risks. BHS staff were also found to fear reprisal if they spoke up about improper conduct.
Comparison of the People Matter Survey results showed 17 per cent of BHS staff experienced bullying in 2019, a decline from 29 per cent three years earlier. This period follows in the wake of a major series of independent and internal investigations into BHS' toxic culture in some departments.
Dr Hadfield pointed to annual Best Practice Australia engagement surveys with BHS staff since the culture shift in 2016. The latest staff survey showed 92 per cent of staff felt confident in raising unsafe conduct.
"I'm fairly confident we have made a number of year-on-year improvements - and culture is an area that is never complete and should always be under review," he said.
BHS made a two-page response to the VAGO report also detailing a restructured centre for safety and innovation team within the past 12 months.
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