Centenary Hospital for Women and Children fetal medicine unit faces further staff losses

The move to contract out those roles has angered unions, who expressed fears this could set a "dangerous precedent" for how the public health system deals with specialist shortages, as more staff have indicated they will resign.

The government and health authorities denied the roles were being outsourced, arguing the contracts were to help boost the existing workforce.

Canberra Health Services said it was not outsourcing but the tender proposal was to "temporarily fill" some positions and provide services. The proposed contracts are for 12 months. All existing staff will keep their positions.

A spokesman said the tender was for specialists who could deliver ultrasound services.

Staff shortages within the unit have meant the hospital has been unable to formally report on all ultrasounds in a timely manner and previous work has been outsourced to a Sydney specialist.

The fetal medicine unit at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children lost its training accreditation from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians due to specialist shortfalls nine months ago.

The situation within the unit has been described as dire by those familiar with the unit. Staff have left and Ms Stephen-Smith said there were more staff within the unit who were going on leave or had indicated they would resign from the service.

The Health Minister conceded there were difficulties in employing medical staff in Canberra Health Services, saying some specialists preferred to be employed by private providers and contracted to the service. She denied it was a matter of money.

"Sometimes people who work in the private sector are willing to contract into public services but not necessarily willing to take a permanent full-time or even a permanent part-time job in the public service," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"I don't think it is a matter of money. I think it is a matter that some people want to work in the public sector and some people want to work in the private sector and seeking to recruit highly-specialised positions in the public sector can be quite a challenge at times."

Ms Stephen-Smith would not be drawn on the culture within the fetal medicine unit.

"I think it's really problematic when you start calling out culture issues in very small teams. This is a very dedicated and hard-working team," she said.

"We've always resisted calls to talk about culture within specific small teams. I don't think it helps those teams to build a stronger culture when you start talking about their culture publicly."

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Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation ACT executive director Steve Ross said it would set a "dangerous precedent" for dealing with shortfalls of medical practitioners.

The Community and Public Sector Union ACT expressed anger at the government's decision to outsource the roles and services this week. The union's acting ACT regional secretary Brenton Higgins said the move went against the government's insourcing agenda. The union also said it had lodged a formal dispute with Canberra Health Services over the matter.

Ms Stephen-Smith said she was unsure what the CPSU would be disputing and said the move may not have been communicated well to the union. She likened the contracts to Canberra Health Services using visiting medical officers.

The Health Minister said there had been repeated attempts to hire new staff into the unit but these had failed.

"As we go through our specialist recruitment process we'll also be looking at whether we need to change anything about the way that we're advertising our permanent public service positions and that's an ongoing process," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"I think it's really important to recognise that we've sought multiple times to recruit permanently to these roles and that we're intending to continue that recruitment process."

Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley said it was not good enough and the government should have done more to keep staff before they had resigned.

"My hope would have been when they knew there were problems months and months ago they would have taken care of the staff they had in the unit so they didn't get to this point where they just stopgapped trying to fix it. It's not the right option for Canberra," she said.

"It's a kneejerk reaction because they've failed to take care of the problem. They've known that this unit was in trouble and they have not acted and now all of a sudden they're having to outsource."

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