Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer has issued a stern warning to those who bully, saying they should be prepared to look at job classifieds.

But the most recent culture survey has indicated that bullying and harassment has dropped by 18 per cent at Canberra Health Services.

In an email circulated to staff and seen by The Canberra Times, Mr Peffer said the recent survey results had been the best in more than 15 years.

However, he has not shied away from the fact there is more work to do.

"We've seen a marked reduction in team members experiencing bullying, harassment, discrimination and favouritism in the workplace," Mr Peffer said in the email.

"That's a big tick, but the fact we have team members facing this at all is not OK.

"I've said it before, if you think it's OK to yell at someone, talk down to your team members (whether you work directly with them or not), or make racist or sexist comments - dig out the job classifieds on the weekend."

Last month Mr Peffer publicly put staff on notice, saying some senior staff would be shown the door and the recent email to employees has appeared to indicate he has followed through on that commitment.

"We've parted ways with some team members because of some long-standing behaviour in recent weeks. And the focus is intensifying into the new year," the email said.

"Everyone in our team deserves to feel safe and valued at work - it doesn't matter where you work in this organisation, or how senior or influential, it applies equally to you, as it does to me."

The recent culture survey heard from more than 3800 people - a response rate of 50 per cent. Engagement with the survey was 6 per cent higher than the last survey in June.

The survey had more almost 40,000 comments and Mr Peffer said he received almost 1700 direct messages as part of the survey.

Mr Peffer was recently appointed as the permanent chief executive of Canberra Health Services.

He had been acting in the role since August following the resignation of former chief executive Bernadette McDonald.

Canberra Health Services executive director of medical services Nick Coatsworth, who is voluntarily leaving the organisation, said in an interview with The Canberra Times said the culture had improved in recent times.

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Cultural problems have plagued Canberra Hospital for years. A damning review into the ACT's public health system almost three years ago found troubling levels of mistrust and bullying.

Wide-ranging recommendations for change were made as part of the review. Each year a review is undertaken into the implementation of the recommendations.

The most recent review found bullying was still a huge problem in Canberra Health Services. It found more needed to be done to ensure there were better expectations of workplace behaviour.

When he responded to the review last month Mr Peffer said those who had consistently exhibited poor behaviour would be exiting the organisation.

"A primary focus for us over the next 12 months is looking at some of those individuals, and some of them are in quite senior roles in the organisation and shouldn't be," he said.

"We will need to make change because we have some great teams doing some terrific work with good culture but equally we have some teams that don't have that same beneficial culture and it's about to change."

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