AMA ACT indicates support for inquiry into health system following calls for royal commission

The association's ACT branch president Professor Walter Abhayaratna said the territory's system was at a "crisis point" and an independent inquiry led by health professionals could provide solutions.

"The call for an independent high level inquiry has merit and it is something that we would support, particularly if it's an initiative that will result in improved healthcare in the ACT," he said.

"No matter what resources are put into it, this system is producing suboptimal outcomes despite the hard work of the clinicians."

The Canberra Liberals have called on the government to establish a royal commission into the territory's health system and the party has promised they will undertake a commission if elected next year.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has rejected the need for a commission, saying the government already knew the issues and was working on fixing the issues.

"I don't think we need a royal commission. I think we understand what the problems are and what we need to do is implement the plans that we have to address the challenges that we face," she said.

"Unfortunately the Canberra Liberals announcement is simply an indication that they don't have any plans to do anything differently."

Professor Abhayaratna said it was not up to him to determine whether a royal commission was the best mechanism, saying this needed to be decided by politicians but he did indicate he supported an inquiry.

"Certainly what I would like is a concept of an inquiry that is independent, done by individuals who have vast experience with the health system," he said.

Professor Abhayaratna said an inquiry needed to look at the entire system, including the community services, the hospitals and the primary care system. He also emphasised the need for governance to be examined. He said previous inquiries had only examined certain issues and hadn't allowed for a "bigger-picture approach" across the system.

"The fact that whatever we are doing for quick fixes are not helping those issues, they're actually making those issues even worse," he said.

MORE HEALTH NEWS:

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT branch secretary Matthew Daniel said the union would need the details of a royal commission before supporting any proposal but said change was needed and previous inquiries had not worked.

"But what we do say is we need something significant to change in ACT in the public health system," he said.

Acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said he wanted a commission to provide a voice to staff.

"They want assurance that the government is going to acknowledge it is a broken system, that there are problems and that there is a long term solution to this," he said.

"We've spoken to doctors ... who said one of the reason clinicians are leaving the system is the continual denials from government."

Professor Abhayaratna said staff the AMA had received feedback from staff they were frustrated that problems were not being acknowledged.

"The feedback is that any efforts to report on the issues are not being met with a type of response that any healthy organisation should have, which is to be able to take the information from the people who are working at the coalface and be able to surround those people with the support that's required to improve services," he said.

Ms Stephen-Smith said she encouraged staff to speak up and said system leaders wanted to hear about problems. She said the government had already heard from health workers through various culture surveys and this meant the government had a fair idea of what the issues are.

"I would want to see our staff being confident to speak up at a systemic level as well and I know that our health system leaders are very enthusiastic about hearing from staff when there is a problem. Until we know there's a problem we can't address it," she said.

"Hearing from staff is really important but we've already heard a lot of those voices.

"I would strongly encourage staff who are concerned about things to raise their voices and to make their voices heard."

Ms Stephen-Smith also said the issues faced by the health system were not unique to the ACT and were challenges faced by the entire country.

Professor Abhayaratna said he agreed issues were being faced around the nation but pointed to the AMA's public hospital report card, which was released last week, to say the ACT's performance was sitting close to the bottom and had not budged over recent years.

"I would agree that the whole of the country is under pressure in terms of health care, the need for health care reform there is certainly a need across the country. But in the ACT for me it's at a crisis point to a point where I don't see any other areas currently," he said.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.