An August update by the Canberra Hospital on workforce planning initiatives, as required by the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RANZCOG), reveals that more staff have left the unit since it was placed on provisional six-month accreditation in June 2023.

Two Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff have left or reduced their hours in the unit, including an unaccredited registrar and an ITP (Integrated Training Program) Registrar – offsetting small gains in recruitment.

Shadow Minister for Health, Leanne Castley, said this was a grave situation for a unit which has already been cautioned about staff turnover and increasing levels of burnout.

“This Labor-Greens Government has failed to improve workplace conditions for our frontline health workforce for years and as a result staff are striking, experiencing burnout and leaving,” Ms Castley said.

“Despite Canberra Hospital failing to meet five out of the six standards set by RANZCOG the hospital has lost another two FTE. Instead, they have plugged gaps with short-term locums – 1-3 unaccredited registrars and a VMO.

“It is clear that Canberra Health Services is struggling to retain staff, and that the government has failed to improve conditions and initiatives in line with other jurisdictions.”

The workforce planning update highlights that Canberra Hospital wants to increase the number of permanent staff by at least 16.5 FTE by early February 2024. This update shows that CHS has only managed to recruit 2.1 FTE whilst two have left the unit since June.

“This update does not ease my concerns that CHS is in danger of losing its training accreditation for the Obstetrics and Gynaecology unit altogether.

“Losing experienced staff and hiring temporary locums to fill this gap is not a sustainable way to manage a unit as important as Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

“The government need to address retention and recruitment initiatives so that clinical and training needs are not continuously impacted.”

The workforce planning update also shows that the hospital has only just implemented initiatives for staff in this unit to work, ‘standard rostered working hours for registrars to increase rest days and ensure appropriately paid work hours’.

“It is extremely disappointing that it takes a scathing report from RANZCOG for the Minister to finally address basic workplace conditions such as appropriate rostering for staff in such a demanding specialty,” Ms Castley concluded.