The Health Minister has confirmed this week that the Nurses and Midwives Union (ANMF) pulled out of the Cultural Reform Oversight Group (CROG) in December last year.

CROG was set up following a recommendation from the damning 2017 independent review into workplace culture in public health services. The recommendation calls on the Minister for Health to establish a committee with hospital directors and key representative organisations to collectively implement recommendations and ensure ongoing improvement.

ANMF Branch Secretary Matthew Daniel stated in the letter “It is evident that the ANMF’s membership of the CROG has become untenable because of the lack of substantial progress in changing culture in ACT Health and because CROG is not an effective forum for addressing the most pressing culture issues facing nurses and midwives”.

Shadow Minister for Health Leanne Castley said she was shocked to hear that the peak body for nurses and midwives’ safety did not think that the Ministers committee was effective in addressing cultural issues.

“Improving the workplace culture for our frontline staff is vital in ensuring that the ACT has an effective and efficient health system,” Ms Castley said.

“It is shameful that the Ministers group has been slammed by the union as not doing enough for nurses and midwives workplace culture in the short and long term.

“It seems that the Minister and officials are more concerned about avoiding an embarrassing front page story than fixing the extensive cultural issues in our health system.”

Matthew Daniel also criticised the health Minister for failing to fix poor behaviour and bullying despite this being a significant issue for more than two years and having no urgency to develop a comprehensive workforce strategy to address staffing shortfalls.