Secrecy of review into ACT's health problem areas slammed

The independent review received almost 400 submissions and more than 1900 responses to a staff-wide survey, with the final report finding troubling levels of bullying in the health system.

Since then, the government has repeatedly refused to disclose specific areas of concern it was notified about within ACT's public health services.

It has also rejected in full freedom of information requests from a number of parties seeking minutes from the meetings of the committee overseeing the the review.

An executive branch manager from Canberra Health Services CEO Bernadette McDonald's office made the decision to refuse one of the freedom of information requests.

She said staff management functions within health would be "detrimentally impacted" by the release of the information which would identify areas that required improvement.

She said it would prejudice the hospital's ability to obtain confidential information in the future and claimed meeting communiques fulfilled the government's requirement to be transparent.

The communiques include a list of attendees at the meetings and a broad overview of what was discussed.

"The meeting reaffirmed the intent of the Culture Review Oversight Group to oversight the implementation of the recommendations from the Final Report into the Independent Review into the Workplace Culture within ACT Public Health Services," part of one communique read.

"The meeting also reinforced the opportunity and responsibility of the Group to lead and support the development of a positive workforce culture across the ACT public health system."

When handing down the review in March, consultant Mick Reid said he did not disclose the hotspots of poor culture in his report so as not to distract from the pervasive nature of issues within ACT's public health services. He said he would write to the government informing them of the problem areas.

When he released the report, Mr Reid urged the government to be as transparent as possible to increase confidence in its response.

Opposition spokeswoman for health Vicki Dunne said transparency was crucial to restoring a positive workplace culture of ACT's health system.

"The reality is, the ACT Labor government has known about serious cultural issues in our hospital for decades and they've covered them up rather than fix them," she said.

"They have a long history of suppressing reports and reviews, allowing the toxic workplace culture to fester. We cannot see history repeat itself. We need more transparency of the health system, not less.

"It's clear bullying threatens the delivery of safe and efficient health care. We have seen this in the loss or reduction of accreditation in troubled areas within the Canberra Hospital, and in the sometimes irreparable harm caused to hospital staff.

"If we are going to restore the workplace culture in the health system we need to establish a new culture of openness and transparency."