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Senior doctors at a prestigious Sydney hospital will launch fresh action against management next week as they demand a government inquiry into what they call widespread failures within the NSW Health system.
In the latest heightening of tensions between clinicians and management, Concord Hospital’s Medical Staff Council (MSC) will decide on Thursday next week whether to move a formal vote of no confidence in NSW Ministry of Health leadership, as well as request a formal inquiry into governance processes.
In an email to the more than 450 members of the hospital’s MSC, the senior doctor championing the motion – former chair Winston Cheung – told doctors that “the current way of doing business cannot continue”.
“Trust must be rebuilt. Governance must be improved. There must be justice,” Cheung’s email read.
In 2023, the same medical council at Concord moved a vote of no confidence against Sydney Local Health District chief executive Teresa Anderson, with staff concerned about a backlog of radiology scans and a toxic workplace culture. Anderson departed less than a year later.
If successful, the latest escalation will denounce all of NSW Health, as doctors said the key problems raised in the 2023 motion had not been sufficiently investigated. Members were also concerned a NSW Ombudsman’s report which found the hospital’s radiology department had a backlog of 50,000 radiology scans, leaving patients waiting an average of 131 days for X-ray results, had not resulted in a formal investigation or management being held to account.
In a statement, a Sydney Local Health District spokesperson said it has invested more than $11 million in major upgrades and new equipment over the past two years, and that the historic backlog of radiology scans had been “substantially reduced”.
The clinicians said staff at Concord have been unable to raise genuine concerns about problems within the NSW Health system – such as outdated equipment, quality of care or budget mismanagement – without fear of repercussions, which they said jeopardises patient care.
The spokesperson said SLHD encouraged open dialogue and fostered an environment where staff felt heard and supported.
Dr Raoul Pope went public on Thursday with a disciplinary letter he received from Concord’s people and culture team. Pope emailed the confidential document to all MSC members, senior SLHD executives, the NSW Health secretary Susan Pearce and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.
The letter warned the neurosurgeon that he had “provided personal commentary regarding NSW Health governance” in emails sent to the MSC, where he criticised what he called the “abhorrent” treatment of Cheung, who raised the 2023 motion.
“Imagine what can happen to a typical contracted staff specialist or VMO who speaks up or makes a complaint about the system?” his initial email read.
In the disciplinary response, the doctor was told his emails were “undermining staff confidence in leadership” and were “inconsistent with your obligations to protect the reputation and interests of SLHD and NSW Health and avoid conduct that may bring the organisation or its staff into disrepute”.
The surgeon’s LinkedIn activity was also singled out as evidence that he had “publicly associated” himself with “commentary critical of NSW Health leadership and governance”.
These posts and comments included suggestions he routinely apologised to patients about facing challenges “to provide a basic level care”, an implication that NSW Health was a “broken system” and a reference to NSW Health management as embracing “qualities like cronyism, nepotism, gaslighting, intimidation and leave [sic] a train of failed governance”.
NSW Health tightened its social media policy in November last year after a high-profile incident involving two Bankstown hospital nurses. They have pleaded not guilty to charges including using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend members of the Jewish community.
Both the doctors union and opposition MPs have criticised the policy for its potential to act as a gag order for staff.
NSW Greens health spokesperson Dr Amanda Cohn, who was also sent the surgeon’s disciplinary letter, said she had “warned that this policy would be used to silence people and intimidate them from speaking up about conditions in their workplace”.
“It’s pretty egregious that so much time and energy has been spent by NSW Health trawling through the individual social media comments of one individual, rather than seeking to actually address the issues that are being called out,” she said.
The SLHD spokesperson said they could not comment on individual staff members, but support the responsible, respectful use of social media. However, they said staff must also be “mindful of their responsibilities and visibility as public sector employees”.
“What we say and share on social media can influence the public’s trust in our health services,” the spokesperson said.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Fred Betros could not comment on the confidential documents, he said the union remained concerned about the potential weaponisation of the policy to silence staff: “We definitely don’t support inappropriate censorship.”
He said Concord’s MSC had not formally raised their concerns with the AMA, and it had only been brought to their attention in the past few days.
The MSC doctors who support the vote of no confidence also raised concerns about mass resignations across Concord hospital, and what they called a lack of justice for staff who had been adversely affected by bullying and harassment, including a “culture review” into the organisation being prevented from investigating these allegations.
The SLHD spokesperson said Concord had one of the lowest staff attrition rates in the district, and the “vast majority” of those interviewed as part of the independent review gave the feedback that they had witnessed “many positive changes in the workplace over the past 12 months”.
Before deciding on the inquiry and vote of no confidence, Concord’s MSC will first hold a secret ballot on whether to proceed with a vote at all, after intervention from the council’s new chair earlier this month. A straw poll in May which did not protect voters’ anonymity found 13 members were in favour of proceeding with the vote of no confidence, while 20 were against.
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