Ambulance Victoria, rural hospital staff among workers reporting increase in workplace harassment

BULLYING has skyrocketed at some hospitals in the past year despite an overall drop in harassment complaints across Victorian hospitals.

BULLYING has skyrocketed at some hospitals in the past year despite an overall drop in harassment complaints across Victorian hospitals.

Ambulance Victoria is one of the health organisations to report an increase in staff ­suffering instances of bullying last year, with 22 per cent of staff saying they suffered at the hands of bullies in 2018 compared to 19 per cent in 2017.

Across Victoria’s public health service, 17 per cent of employees reported having personally experienced bullying during 2017-18, down from 20 per cent a year earlier, ­according to the state government’s People Matter survey.

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But some regional and rural hospitals have reported increasing rates of bullying, including Heywood and Cohuna where four out of every 10 ­employees say they are being victimised while at work.

Ambulance Victoria staff have experienced an increase in bullying.

Concerning increases in bullying also took place at smaller regional centres such as Cobram District Health, where the 28 per cent of ­employees reporting bullying has climbed to 34 per cent; ­Orbost, rising from 15 per cent to 22 per cent; and Moyne, up from 14 per cent to 18 per cent.

After initiating the annual bullying and harassment audit three years ago, Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the data helped identify issues.

“Bullying and harassment have no place in our health services or our community — it’s up to all of us to call it out and stamp it out,” she said.

“Ignoring it won’t fix things — that’s why we’re creating an environment where reporting is encouraged and delivering measures that ensure people can do their jobs in a safe, ­respectful and welcoming ­environment.”

Victorian health services ­received the People Matter Survey results this month and Ms Hennessy said they were now developing actions to overcome the issues raised.

Victorian health minister Jill Hennessy.

Despite an increase in claims of bullying at Ambulance Victoria, fewer staff ­indicated they had submitted official bullying complaints.

A further 15 per cent of ­ambulance staff reported instances of sexual harassment that were also “outside AV’s expectations”.

In response, Ambulance Victoria is working to establish a ­Professional Conduct Unit, ­develop a diversity and ­inclusion strategy, improve its supervision model and streamline recruitment processes.

To reduce wider instances of harassment in the health workforce, the Andrews Government established an expert panel to review health service culture and organisational approaches to culture and inappropriate behaviour.

It also allocated $1.5 million to reduce violence against health care workers.

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