The search for a new ACT Health director-general has begun as Peggy Brown prepares to leave the role after five years.
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Head of the ACT Public Service Kathy Leigh announced Dr Brown's decision not to seek reappointment to the role later this year in an email to territory bureaucrats on Tuesday morning.
The announcement comes after ACT Health attracted criticism in recent months, including over management processes and cultural problems at the Canberra Hospital.
In November, the hospital's head of obstetrics and gynaecology quit his position after allegations of mismanagement and long-running bullying allegations became public.
A leaked internal report warned mismanagement problems inside the hospital's maternity unit had put the health of patients at serious risk. Problems in the unit have been the subject of a series of internal reports, dating back as far as 2010.
Its training program was given a six-month warning over accreditation standards. Dr Brown defended the unit and refused to release the assessment report.
A former ACT chief psychiatrist, she led ACT Health's response to revelations that emergency department performance data had been altered by a senior Canberra Hospital executive in 2012.
A recruitment process has begun to fill the top job in Health.
"I extend my sincere thanks to Dr Brown for her stewardship of ACT Health over the past five years," Ms Leigh said in the internal email.
"Her departure is not for a few months so there will be opportunities for a proper reflection on her contribution and for the many staff who have worked with her to say farewell."
Health Minister Simon Corbell praised Dr Brown's leadership in reform and expansion of ACT Health.
Mr Corbell, who took over from former health minister Katy Gallagher in December, said Dr Brown's departure comes at the end of a five-year term.
He said the departure had Dr Brown's decision, with "no pressure at all from the government".
"Speak to anyone in the ACT health system and Dr Peggy Brown is widely respected and admired for her professionalism, her commitment to the ACT health system and her professionalism," Mr Corbell said.
"[She] is leaving now at a time when waiting lists are at their lowest level since 2004 for elective surgery and the second year in a row that we have seen significance improvements in waiting times."
Dr Brown had led the directorate on important projects including development of the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, the Canberra Region Cancer Centre and the introduction of nurse-led walk-in centres.
Asked about ongoing challenges and controversies during Dr Brown's tenure, Mr Corbell said health was always a complex and essential area of government service delivery.
"I am very confident that we will attract a high quality and highly experienced candidate to replace Dr Brown."
Mr Corbell said the government was implementing all of the recommendations from the critical accreditation report from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists into maternity training.
He said there was "no indication" of another adverse report or loss of training accreditation.
Dr Brown graduated in medicine in 1983, completed her training in psychiatry in 1990 and has worked in public health systems in the ACT, Queensland and Britain.
She serves as an adjunct associate professor at Australian National University.
Australian Medical Association ACT president Elizabeth Gallagher said the health sector would miss Dr Brown's leadership.
She called for a candidate with a background in medical practice to be considered for the role of director-general.
"Her job is a difficult job," Dr Gallagher said. "There is always going to be problems that need to be dealt with and trouble shooting no matter what. If it wasn't the public hospital, it would be something else."
