The ACT government could take four months to respond formally to a damning Auditor-General's report into Calvary Hospital's irregular financial reports.
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Health Minister Simon Corbell said Legislative Assembly processes allowed a considered response to the auditor's findings and the government would work closely with the Little Company of Mary to respond to all of the auditor's recommendations.
On Friday, Auditor-General Maxine Cooper issued a report that detailed falsification of financial statements back to October 2012, with irregularities reaching as high as $9 million between 2012 and 2014.
Dr Cooper said the financial mismanagement was a "major concern" and made eight substantial recommendations to the ACT government.
Among them was the recommendation the government examine "the fundamental issue of whether or not the Calvary Network Agreement is the most appropriate mechanism for delivering public hospital services".
Mr Corbell has subsequently expressed confidence in the hospital's new management – after both the former chief executive and chief financial officer left in August 2014, about the same time financial irregularities were referred to the auditor – but said he would seek greater accountability from the hospital.
Calvary is a government-funded hospital but is operated by the Catholic Little Company of Mary.
Mr Corbell said "the critical issue here is accountability, transparency and effective governance of Calvary. I will seek to build further on work in this area to improve Calvary's accountability. The government will continue to examine ways to improve the integration of Calvary into the ACT public hospital system".
He stressed there had been "no misappropriation of funding or loss to the taxpayer as a result of this incident, and those involved were Calvary employees who are now no longer employed".
The Canberra Times could not contact the former hospital executives for comment on Monday.
Mr Corbell said the government had "a good working relationship with Calvary and recognises the important role Calvary Public Hospital plays in providing quality health services to the Canberra community".
This is despite the opposition saying the relationship between ACT Labor and hospital management had been difficult since a failed attempt to take over the hospital in 2009.
Opposition Leader and health spokesman Jeremy Hanson said Mr Corbell had an ideological issue regarding the operators.
"That attempt ended in disaster and there is no doubt there is bad blood and acrimony between Minister Corbell and the hospital and ultimately, when you look at the health system, patients and staff are paying the price for all of that toxic relationship," Mr Hanson said.
He also said former health minister Katy Gallagher, who was in the portfolio at the time the financial irregularities arose, now had two serious hospital reporting fiascos on her ministerial record.
"The latest audit raises serious questions about her legacy as health minister," Mr Hanson said.
In 2012, Ms Gallagher faced a no-confidence motion in the Legislative Assembly over the Canberra Hospital data doctoring scandal in which waiting times were falsified as part of more than 11,000 changes to emergency department records dating back to 2009.
Ms Gallagher retired from the Assembly last year and is now a Labor senator. She responded to Mr Hanson's criticism by saying "ACT Health were the first to recognise the problem, they briefed me immediately and escalated the issue to the Calvary Health Care Board who put in place a forensic audit to identify the problem and who was responsible, and the matter was also appropriately referred to the Auditor-General".
Mr Hanson said the opposition was considering raising a motion of no-confidence in Mr Corbell as Health Minister.
