Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris has refused to explain why chief medical officer Jeffrey Fletcher quit the job just 20 months after starting in the role.
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In a fiery question time, the Health Minister also refused to engage with questions about the high rate of churn of senior staff in ACT Health or about her own responses to issues.
The Canberra Liberals focused solely on the continuing crises facing ACT Health throughout question time, directly questions only at Minister Fitzharris.
Biting back at the line of questioning, Minister Fitzharris accused the opposition of scaremongering about issues in the health sector.
"[I] once again note the Canberra Liberals' scaremongering consistently. Never once, never once, having anything positive to say about ACT Health or its staff. Not once, not once in this term, Madam Speaker, have they had anything to say about ACT Health staff," Minister Fitzharris said to many interjections from the opposition.
"They hear the Canberra Liberals, Madam Speaker and they have heard their relentless, relentless negative campaign against ACT Health, against doctors and nurses in our community. They have done it in the past, they will do it in the future. What are they hiding, Madam Speaker? What are they hiding about their plans?"
Minister Fitzharris committed to releasing briefs on the SPIRE hospital project, after it was revealed on Monday the site for the new hospital may need to be changed.
Interrogated on possible cost-cutting measures around elective surgery, Minister Fitzharris said none of the measures, which include possible caps on costs for joint replacements and giving patients a "one strike and you're out" policy for refusing surgery dates, had been implemented.
The minister also said the measures were in their early stages and based on clinical advice, but that the brief in which they had been recommended came before the new organisational structure of ACT Health.
