‘Behind the game’: Only one Indigenous employee at health watchdog

Only one of the 140 employees at the Healthcare Complaints Commission is openly Indigenous; state MPs believe it’s a symptom of a lingering disinterest.

Independent NSW Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr has argued against Indigenous under-representation within the NSW Healthcare Complaints Commission. Picture: Supplied

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NSW’s dedicated healthcare regulator has only one openly Indigenous employee in its 140-strong workforce, and is facing accusations of community mistrust and lagging support for the state’s most vulnerable patient groups.

In its last annual report, the Healthcare Complaints Commission reported its Indigenous representation sat at 0.8 per cent internally. Commissioner John Tansey told a NSW parliamentary committee on Monday that there was only one Indigenous employee within the whole organisation – a fact that became evident when it started to design a Reconciliation Action Plan.

He said recruitment was “mathematically challenging”.

“We only have one member of staff who identifies as Aboriginal, so they were invited to be involved (in the plan),” Mr Tansey told the committee. “One of the outcomes we would look to through our plan is increasing capacity to recruit and retain First Nations people in the staff of the organisation.

“As a very small organisation, that will sometimes be a little bit mathematically challenging, but we would absolutely want to … reflect the people we serve.

“We are genuinely committed to doing this well and continuously doing it better.”

He conceded that non-­English-speaking complainants and culturally diverse Australians were even worse served by the HCCC than Indigenous groups. “I suspect we do slightly better at the moment with First Nations communities – that might surprise people – than we necessarily do with culturally and linguistically diverse communities,” he said.

HCCC commissioner John Tansey.

“Our multicultural communities in population numbers are far greater than First Nations communities, so it’s just a bigger challenge to try and engage.”

Independent Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr, a former doctor of emergency medicine and hospital manager who chairs the HCCC committee, argued the regulator would have to better service vulnerable groups in order to improve the organisations it held to account.

“We’ve been waiting for this (plan) and they’re actually a bit behind the game,” he told The Australian. “Without First Nations people or people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities raising those issues through the HCCC, there’s an avenue gone.

“If all the complaints you’re getting are from educated, ­middle-class people, then your health services will reflect that.

“One person out of 140 … It seems like a small thing, but the fact they haven’t addressed it reinforces my view that they don’t think it’s important.”

The HCCC in its annual reports does not track to which health services Indigenous pat­ients have directed their complaints, limiting information on the worst offenders. “The fact we’re not monitoring it is a blind spot,” Dr McGirr said.

“The commissioner would be the first person to say how committed the organisation is to engage with First Nations communities and frankly I hear that from health services and health service executives frequently. I’ve heard it for 30 years, but unless you do some reflection on your organisation, some cultural training and awareness, you don’t actually understand the barriers that people face in accessing health services, or in this case accessing services to raise concern about services.”

In the last annual report, HCCC complaints rose 3.3 per cent, with most from regional communities. Complaint resolutions fell 17.3 per cent to 95.2 per cent total or partial completion rate.

It also falls short in representing linguistically diverse and disabled people in its staff.

The latest Closing the Gap data shows life expectancies remain 6.8 years behind the average among Indigenous men in NSW and 5.9 years behind for women.

Committee member and Greens MLC Amanda Cohn said she had privately informed the HCCC of multiple reports of systemic racism in western NSW medical services against Indigenous patients. “This must be investigated as a potential systemic issue rather than on a case-by-case basis,” she said.

“I am pleased that the commissioner acknowledged the HCCC was aware of a ‘cluster’ of complaints and that staff have travelled to the impacted community. Like any public sector agency, the HCCC should reflect the diversity of the communities it serves.

“This is especially important in healthcare because of the historical and ongoing mistrust many Aboriginal communities feel.”