The ACT government has blocked the release of a critical audit report that led to Canberra Hospital being stripped of its accreditation for urology training over concerns about internal culture and significant staff disharmony.
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The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons withdrew the hospital's training accreditation for urology services in June, after a review found a lack of respect and ongoing mistrust between consultants and trainee doctors, creating an unsatisfactory training environment.
ACT Health will be forced to apply for new training accreditation in 2016, after the audit found inadequate mentoring taking place in the unit and significant disharmony among the consultant staff. Urology services continue to be provided in the hospital and only a small number of medical officers were affected.
The loss of training accreditation came days after Health Minister Simon Corbell and new ACT Health director-general Nicole Feely moved to announce a review of all training programs inside Canberra Hospital.
Mr Corbell confirmed he was aware of the college's concerns before the review was announced. He said patient care would not be impacted by the failure.
A freedom of information request for the college's full audit report was rejected by ACT Health officials on the grounds its release could prejudice the effectiveness or methods of future tests and audits by external agencies at the hospital.
Executive director of surgery at ACT Health Barbara Reid said releasing the full report could change the way doctors and administrators sought to pass future tests and audits, and could have "a substantial adverse effect on the management or assessment of personnel by the territory or by an agency".
The report being made public could also cause an "adverse effect on the proper conduct" of the hospital or other agencies and even impact future industrial negotiations.
Losing accreditation for urology training was just the latest in a line of problems faced by ACT Health.
Canberra Hospital's maternity unit received this year the shortest possible accreditation period for its own training programs, after another external audit found ongoing cultural and bullying issues. Separately, ACT Auditor-General Maxine Copper found errors in patient data collection were likely to have cost ACT Health and taxpayers up to $3 million from under-claiming.
In 2012, it was revealed that patient records had been manipulated to improve reporting outcomes.
Last week the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards gave re-accreditation for ACT Health for three years, including for acute services, community health services, day procedure services, dental services, mental health services and sub-acute services.
Announcing the review of all training programs before a Legislative Assembly estimates hearing in mid-June, Mr Corbell and Ms Feely said interim recommendations were due to be delivered to the government within a month.
With the mid-July deadline having passed, a spokesman for Mr Corbell said that a release date was yet to be set, but the report was being finalised by Health officials last week.
The report is expected to be given to Mr Corbell's office sometime this week. Mr Corbell has previously committed to issuing the report to the public, while Ms Feely said she would have "zero tolerance" for allegations of bullying, including inside the troubled training programs.
