Deloitte report slams Tasmanian Health Service executive

A DAMNING independent report into the Tasmanian Health Service has slammed the organisation’s executive.

Tasmanian Health Service CEO David Alcorn and Health Minister Michael Ferguson. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

A DAMNING independent report into the Tasmanian Health Service has slammed the organisation’s executive, recommending a long list of improvements and ramping up pressure on CEO David Alcorn.

A Deloitte report, which medical professionals have been calling on Health Minister Michael Ferguson to release, has found communication, trust and accountability in the THS all need urgent attention.

Mr Ferguson released a summary late yesterday after previously describing the report as Cabinet-in-confidence and then telling State Parliament it did not exist.

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Deloitte interviewed 36 senior health professionals and received another 145 responses to a survey as part of work undertaken on the opening of new beds in the state’s struggling hospitals.

“The THS executive is not currently seen to be operating effectively,” the report found.

“Governance structures, processes and management protocols are not always clear, or universally understood, or where they do exist are perceived to be not adhered to.”

The report found the THS executive needed to improve:

— communication, particularly with clinical leaders to improve relationships;

— consultation;

— core processes;

— culture;

— accountability;

— relationships, including “foundational elements of trust”.

“The perceived lack of unity of the THS executive appears to be impacting the broader organisation, with the potential to undermine the effectiveness of the leadership group,” the summary said.

Doctors and Royal Hobart Hospital staff have both declared “no confidence” in Dr Alcorn, who has been in the job two years, a call reiterated by the RHH Staff Association’s Frank Nicklason yesterday.

“Toxic governance and failed governance must not be tolerated,” Dr Nicklason said.

“It’s high time to undertake the reform of the THS executive and the governing council that everyone has been calling for over the past year.”

The summary’s release puts the struggling health system back in the spotlight as a major election issue.

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Mr Ferguson said he accepted the executive was not operating effectively.

“The Government is considering the feedback provided through the survey which we initiated in order to continue our efforts to improve Tasmania’s public health system,” he said.

Opposition leader Rebecca White accused Mr Ferguson of misleading Parliament over the report’s existence.

“It is alarming that Michael Ferguson was so determined to keep hidden Deloitte’s summary of the THS that he would mislead the Parliament,” she said.

Deloitte’s work was completed under the umbrella of the New Beds Implementation Team set up to oversee the opening of 127 beds and recliners across the health service.

Mr Ferguson said 79 beds and four treatment recliners had been opened.

“A further 22 beds and treatment recliners will open in the next two months, followed by a 22-bed ward at the Hobart Repatriation Hospital due to open by mid-2018,” he said.