A SENIOR specialist at Canberra Hospital had been vilified and the victim of a harsh, unjust sacking, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled.
Senior deputy president Lea Drake ordered Dr Michael Falk be reinstated and compensated, and severely criticised senior managers in the health department and hospital over their roles in the matter.
"Unsubstantiated, silly and false complaints" motivated by ill-will and malevolence against Dr Falk had destroyed the peace and good management of an important unit at a major hospital, Ms Drake said in her finding.
"If TCH [Canberra Hospital] had deliberately endeavoured to ensure that the management of Dr Falk's employment from 2003 to 2006, the management of matters of complaint against him and the resolution of the outcome of those matters of complaint were as complicated, as ineffective and as damaging for Dr Falk and TCH as possible, they could not have been more successful.
"I have never observed an employment relationship or internal process more riddled with procrastination, unreasonable formality and unnecessary quasi-legal processes.
"I have found that there was not a valid reason for the termination of the employment of Dr Falk arising out of the allegations against him."
Dr Falk, a nephrology specialist, worked in the hospital's renal unit from March 1999 to May 2006, when he was sacked.
He had been stood down as acting director of the unit and gone on stress leave before his dismissal.
Ms Drake found the doctor had been vilified, suffered damage to his reputation and was removed from a position he had enjoyed.
Dr Falk had suffered a great deal, she said.
"He has been unable to teach or conduct research from a public hospital.
"He has lost his income and has had to endure the social stigma of termination of employment for a raft of reasons, many of which had no proper foundation, and the unavoidable inference from which was that he was an unpleasant, mean-spirited bully who affected patient care and the management of the renal unit by his conduct."
Several hospital staff alleged Dr Falk had harassed and bullied other staff.
But Ms Drake found one of the complainants, Dr Balaji Hiremagalur, was prone to exaggeration, and the other, administration officer Lisa Trounson, waged a deliberate and successful campaign for Dr Falk's sacking.
Ms Trounson had performed her own work poorly and made false complaints against Dr Falk. She had blackened his reputation, ridiculed and verbally abused him, and interfered in the efficient management of his practice and performance of his work.
Senior managers had failed to take responsibility for events and deal with issues in a timely way, Ms Drake said.
She criticised the hospital's director of ambulatory care, Rosemary O'Donnell, for failing to provide support for Dr Falk and being unable to answer questions about procedure or her responsibilities.
The then ACT Health chief executive Dr Tony Sherbon was criticised for delegating his decision-making duty in this case to a Ms Childs, a newly appointed officer.
The hospital's former general manager, John Mollett, was also criticised over his dealings with Dr Falk and for allegations he made against the specialist.
"An examination of the history of complaints against Dr Falk and the management of these matters is sufficient to cause an independent observer to doubt the objectivity and motivation of Mr Mollett," she said.
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