My earnest hope is that we can all learn from it and improve the way that Canberra Hospital, Calvary Public Hospital and the ACT Health Directorate does their work.

The final report makes it clear that the independent review received a wide range of information from submitters, from staff surveys and from meetings held with interest groups and individuals. It’s apparent that much of the information received by the Review was similar to that which had been provided to Australian Medical Association (ACT).

The recommendations in the final report are significant because they point the way forward and propose structures, practices and processes designed to bring about cultural change in the workplaces of the ACT public healthcare services.

While this is a very good thing, to my mind, there is still a significant issue to resolve that the "independent review" could never deal with - how to ensure some level of individual accountability for the cultural and workplace problems identified in the final report? In other words, how will individual accountability for poor past behaviour be dealt with?

It’s telling that Mick Reid, chair of the review panel, when launching the interim report suggested there will be "some areas where people will need to be removed from their jobs if they have demonstrated poor behaviour over many years".

A major reason why AMA (ACT) called for a board of inquiry into workplace culture was its ability to investigate both current and past system problems and hold people to account. There’s no doubt in my mind that a Board of Inquiry would have come up with broadly similar recommendations to the independent review – given that the available information was always going to be similar – but, importantly, a board of inquiry would have taken the next step and identified some of the perpetrators responsible for the workplace problems.

The independent review was never going to be able to do this.

While implementation of the final report’s recommendations is the single most important issue facing us now, it’s also clear that individual accountability remains a significant challenge that needs to be dealt with. It’s apparent from the findings in the final report, the recommendations made and the complaint referrals that have occurred, that follow up work needs to be done to address individual accountability for past inappropriate conduct.

AMA (ACT) wants to work with Minister Fitzharris and other stakeholders in addressing these issues but it really falls to the minister, given her insistence that we didn’t need a board of inquiry, to come up with a way forward that we can all support.

Dr Antonio Di Dio is the president of the Australian Medical Association (ACT).