SA Health ICAC report: Royal commission is only way to fix this sick system
The internal taskforce to investigate SA Health gives the impression of the Government “doing something”, without going as far as a royal commission which could backfire on them.
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When the going gets tough, announce a taskforce.
It gives the impression the Government is “doing something” without the risk of an independent inquiry such as a royal commission which can backfire on governments.
So we now have a $6 billion, 40,000 employee organisation loaded with allegations of corruption and maladministration being coddled by the Government’s own top bureaucrats into “cultural” changes.
Problems within SA Health are many and widespread, from bullying and “empire-building” to rorting overtime and dodgy procurement deals.
These include $112 million in payments without proper approvals, just in the network running the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander QC wanted $2 million for a full investigation of SA Health but was denied the cash, which seems relatively small change against his target’s massive budget.
Instead we get a bunch of bureaucrats trying to fix problems for the future, with little mention of investigating and prosecuting possible criminal actions of the past and present.
The odd thing about Health Minister Stephen Wade’s announcement was that changes would be “fundamentally driven by clinicians, not lawyers.”
Yet it is some clinicians at the centre of many allegations, from rorting overtime and signing each other’s time books to bullying junior staff, slick private practice deals where the public purse pays their private income, even industrial blackmail.
Rorting timesheets has been a running joke in some areas of health. But for a humble newspaper reporter, it is hard to prove without a paper trail that an independent inquiry would be able to demand.
Chemotherapy bungle victim Andrew Knox has seen it all before with multiple inquiries which he sees as cover-ups.
He wants nothing less than an all-encompassing judicial review.
Labor wants more resources for ICAC but falls short of calling for a full royal commission; not surprising since it might dig up skeletons from the Labor era, including when now Leader Peter Malinauskas was health minister.
SA Best is keen for a royal commission.
A taskforce might release some steam, but possible SA Health corruption is an issue which will remain on the boil.