A Question taken on Notice by the Health Minister has revealed that Canberra Hospital’s Plastic Surgery unit has had its training accreditation revoked, while the Child at Risk Health unit has been notified there will be a mid-cycle review of its training accreditation.

Shadow Health Minister, Leanne Castley, said these units were now the third and fourth at Canberra Hospital to have serious issues with training accreditation due to workforce shortages, following similar issues with the Fetal and Maternal and Obstetrics and Gynaecology units.

“This reflects poorly on Canberra Health Services’ (CHS) reputation as a place for junior doctors to train. This could have an ongoing impact on attraction and retention of staff for these specialties for years,” Ms Castley said.

Ms Castley said the Health Minister was not being upfront with Canberrans about the seriousness of these units losing their accreditation and the significant concerns that have been highlighted by the respective colleges and council.

A RANZCOG report into the Obstetrics and Gynaecology unit showed that there are serious shortfalls in staffing and staff burnout with limited support from management – something the Health Minister dismisses simply as “known challenges.”

“The RANZCOG report into Obstetrics and Gynaecology is an indicator of how serious issues are for a college or council to intervene on training accreditation.

“We know that junior doctors who undertake their training in the ACT are more likely to stay when they finish their training. Frontline staff, trainee doctors and Canberrans deserve much better from this government.

Ms Castley also said the Health Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, had initially been clueless and had then extraordinarily taken almost a fortnight to learn of these latest accreditation issues with the Plastic Surgery and child at Risk Health units.

“This has to raise issues of competence. When I asked the Health Minister at Estimates on 20 July if any other units were in danger of losing accreditation, the Minister answered, “Not off the top of my head”.”

“When pressed to confirm if the Plastic Surgery unit had lost accreditation, a CHS executive said, “Not to my knowledge, but I will check on that and come back and correct the record if necessary.” This did not occur during the estimates hearing.”

In a well overdue answer, the Minister has now admitted she was only advised of the issues with accreditation of the Plastic Surgery and Child at Risk Health units on the 2^nd of August – nearly two weeks after I asked my questions at Estimates.

“The fact that the Minister and senior executives were not aware in Estimates that another unit was losing its accreditation and that the Minister wasn’t advised of this for almost two weeks, shows a total disregard for our frontline workforce and junior doctors in training.” Ms Castley concluded.