Jilian Skinner: Bullying rife in NSW Health
Workplace bullying has reached extreme levels in the NSW health system, despite government programs, including an anti-bullying hotline, to stamp out the practice says Kirsty Needham in the SMH 21 July 2013 Here.
Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald ... said when Health Minister Jillian Skinner was in opposition, she had campaigned on allegations of bullying in hospitals and said fixing bullying would be her top priority.
''The minister has ... failed to fix the situation” ... he said.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said new rules on employee conduct designed to tackle bullying were issued to health workers in March last year. Each health district now employs an anti-bullying management adviser.
''The NSW government established a taskforce on organisational culture change, led by the Director-General of NSW Health, to identify strategies that can support the elimination of bullying and harassment and help bring about cultural change,'' Mrs Skinner said.
The anti-bullying hotline provides independent advice to health staff, while anti-bullying management advisers provide coaching to managers on how to deal with complaints.
Despite the appointment of anti-bullying advisers, the Public Service Commission survey found every local health district reported bullying above the NSW government average.
In the Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District, 66 per cent of staff had witnessed bullying and, in the Nepean Blue Mountains Health District, 64 per cent reported seeing bullying. In NSW Health and the ambulance service, 59 per cent of staff reported bullying to the survey.
Comment by Dr Michael Cole:
The so called Bullying Hotline does not provide any useful advice. It does nothing more than refer the caller back to the organisation's anti bullying policies. Since it is the failure of these policies that is the problem in the first place, otherwise the caller would not be seeking advice, this advice is redundant and useless.
I have no experience of the ‘anti-bullying’ coaches. But I believe they are paid by the health district and so, like the human resources department, they will ‘side with’ the health district.
WorkCover, who are supposed to prosecute cases of bulling are no better. The only cases that WorkCover has prosecuted were cases of criminal violence which they called ‘bullying’. I have been unable to find a single case of bullying prosecuted by Workcover (or WorkSafe) that was not simply a criminal assault.
Let’s hope Dr Andrew McDonald does a better job. Bullying in NSW Health needs to be addressed.
Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald ... said when Health Minister Jillian Skinner was in opposition, she had campaigned on allegations of bullying in hospitals and said fixing bullying would be her top priority.
''The minister has ... failed to fix the situation” ... he said.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said new rules on employee conduct designed to tackle bullying were issued to health workers in March last year. Each health district now employs an anti-bullying management adviser.
''The NSW government established a taskforce on organisational culture change, led by the Director-General of NSW Health, to identify strategies that can support the elimination of bullying and harassment and help bring about cultural change,'' Mrs Skinner said.
The anti-bullying hotline provides independent advice to health staff, while anti-bullying management advisers provide coaching to managers on how to deal with complaints.
Despite the appointment of anti-bullying advisers, the Public Service Commission survey found every local health district reported bullying above the NSW government average.
In the Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District, 66 per cent of staff had witnessed bullying and, in the Nepean Blue Mountains Health District, 64 per cent reported seeing bullying. In NSW Health and the ambulance service, 59 per cent of staff reported bullying to the survey.
Comment by Dr Michael Cole:
The so called Bullying Hotline does not provide any useful advice. It does nothing more than refer the caller back to the organisation's anti bullying policies. Since it is the failure of these policies that is the problem in the first place, otherwise the caller would not be seeking advice, this advice is redundant and useless.
I have no experience of the ‘anti-bullying’ coaches. But I believe they are paid by the health district and so, like the human resources department, they will ‘side with’ the health district.
WorkCover, who are supposed to prosecute cases of bulling are no better. The only cases that WorkCover has prosecuted were cases of criminal violence which they called ‘bullying’. I have been unable to find a single case of bullying prosecuted by Workcover (or WorkSafe) that was not simply a criminal assault.
Let’s hope Dr Andrew McDonald does a better job. Bullying in NSW Health needs to be addressed.
Follow Dr Cole on Twitter:
