On Monday of last week, the the ACT board of the Australian Medical Association called for an independent judicial review – called a "board of inquiry" in the ACT – into the workplace culture and bullying in the ACT healthcare system.

This was a big step to take. We challenged Health Minster Meegan Fitzharris to step up and lead the process; to make a difference and join us and other health stakeholders and to say "enough is enough". Taking this action would also help end the ongoing media circus of public complaints, infighting, bullying, and below-par administration that the ACT healthcare system has been subject to over many years.

And most importantly, we need to do this because we know that a poor workplace culture, and particularly bullying, can lead to sub-optimal patient outcomes.

We know there are risks in setting up a board of inquiry and that poor culture and poor behaviour are not limited to any one type of health worker in an organisation of 7000 employees. It will be challenging, and it will be difficult, but we believe it needs to be done.

The community and health workers all know it needs be done. Since Monday last week, we have been inundated with emails, phone calls, and text messages from our medical colleagues, our fellow health workers, and the ACT community, congratulating us on taking this step. We’ve been sent personal stories, we’ve been stopped in corridors and in the street by colleagues, and in the course of our day-to-day work.

We’ve even been stopped in hospital car parks and told how people we work with every day have been affected and how their families have too.

Enough really is enough.

For this to be done properly, it is vital that a board of inquiry be set up and that community members and staff can come and tell their stories in a protected environment and without fear of reprisal.

Equally important, it is vital that the board of inquiry holds public hearings so that ACT Health, Calvary Public Hospital, and other organisations that receive large amounts of taxpayer dollars are held to account in full view of the ACT community. How can our community be satisfied that we know what’s been going on in the administration of health care in the ACT, unless healthcare bosses are questioned in public by an independent board of inquiry, and challenged about their decisions, policies, procedures, and actions?

The old saying "sunshine as disinfectant" comes to mind and that is exactly what the ACT healthcare system needs. The minister’s proposal for a private, behind-closed-doors review just doesn’t cut it. There’s no sunshine behind closed doors.

Let me put it another way. Both recent high-profile royal commissions – into institutional responses to child sexual abuse and into the banks – are cases in point and particularly the way in which they were run.

Consider this question: how effective do you think the royal commissions would have been if all their hearings had been held in private and the leaders of the various child welfare agencies, churches and schools or the executives of banks and insurance companies had never been exposed in public? Clearly, they would have been much less effective and, importantly, the churches and the banks and others would never have been held to public account.

The principle that should apply to ACT Health and Calvary Public Hospital is simple – when you spend large amounts of public money and employ large numbers of the ACT’s citizens and, most importantly, provide health care to our community, you must be publicly accountable for your workplace culture. Anything less, and the creeping sickness of a poor culture and bullying will continue to flourish.

This is not about "bad apples" or silos of poor behaviour. These are systemic issues and we, as the local medical profession, and you, as the community, all know it. I think Ms Fitzharris, in her heart of hearts, knows it too.

Let’s stop repeating the mistakes of the past and settle this matter once and for all. When it’s the health of our community at stake, nothing short of a board of inquiry with public and private hearings will get the job done.

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