Perhaps this case from 2008 may be of interest to Dr Lynette Bellamy (should she keep her job) the relatively new member of the SSWAHS Executive who is responsible for the Clinical Governance of the Sydney South West Area Health Service. Perhaps it's a good enough reason for the Athenian Delphi (and other women) be asked to do these breastscreen things rather than males.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
"Targets" followed by government cancer screener set to kill woman
Breastscreen patients who get letters stating their mammograms show "no visible evidence of breast cancer" cannot be sure they are risk-free until they see a GP or have an ultrasound, a court has found. In a "controversial and far-reaching" case, Christine Ann O'Gorman, 57, was awarded almost $406,000 damages in the Supreme Court in Sydney yesterday after she sued BreastScreen NSW - an arm of the Sydney South West Area Health Service - for failing to diagnose a cancerous tumour that spread to her lungs and brain.
Ms O'Gorman, who is terminally ill, had mammograms every two years from 1994 at BreastScreen but radiologists failed to detect that a lump in her left breast had almost doubled in size between her 2004 and 2006 scans, Justice Clifton Hoeben found. After each scan, the single mother from Moorebank was issued with a letter stating her results showed "no visible evidence of breast cancer".
In his judgment, Justice Hoeben said a letter from BreastScreen was not enough for women to rely on. "I am sure that many women who participate in the BreastScreen program believe that when they receive the pro-forma letter, the presence of cancer is excluded," he said. "That is clearly not the case. The documents which those women sign before undergoing a mammogram and the pamphlets available make it clear that there are significant qualifications applicable when a 'no visible evidence of cancer' result is communicated to them."
Justice Hoeben found that, had radiologists compared O'Gorman's 2004 and 2006 scans, the change in appearance of the lump would have been detected and would have prompted further tests. Instead, Ms O'Gorman felt the cancerous tumour herself in January last year. After seeing her GP and undergoing further tests, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and after chemotherapy her left breast was removed in August last year. The cancer has subsequently spread to her lungs and brain.
Supported in court yesterday by her partner Glen and daughter Kristy, Ms O'Gorman wept when Justice Hoeben awarded her $405,990.15. Outside court, she said she did not want her negative experience with BreastScreen to discourage women from having their breasts checked regularly through the service. But she said compliance standards that urge clinics to "keep down" the numbers of women recalled to less than 5 per cent should be abolished to allow "case by case assessments". "The system has to be changed because even if they miss just one person it's wrong," she said.
In a statement, the SSWAHS said they would be "considering the judgment very carefully".
Well I guess we have all the proof we need in the previous posts in this blog that SSWAHS always considers judgements like these "very carefully" - I don't think!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
SSWAHS in the news again! Oh Dear! Who guards the guards
It would appear that the SSWAHS executive are not so diligent at looking into the background of those who they really want to employ. Old Socrates was on the drachma when he suggested, in an earlier posting, that if you want to rort the system just take a management job in SSWAHS. The following is a juicy morsel edited from the Sydney Morning Herald!
Health service director battled watchdog
August 17, 2010
Most of the doctors found to be ripping off Medicare are never identified publicly, writes Natasha Wallace.
FOR seven years, the former eastern suburbs doctor Lynette Bellamy quietly battled the Medicare watchdog over allegations of inappropriate practice, including poor medical record-keeping. Meanwhile, she rose through the Health Department ranks to an executive role overseeing initiatives to improve patient care in hospitals.
Just seven months after the Medicare watchdog, the Professional Services Review, found in April 2005 that Dr Bellamy had engaged in inappropriate practice in 83 per cent of 34 consultations audited, she was hired as a senior medical adviser for the Health Department's Clinical Excellence Commission, where she analysed reports on avoidable patient deaths.
In January 2008, she was appointed the director of clinical governance for the Sydney South West Area Health Service, which covers 1.3 million people from Balmain to Bowral.
Nine months later, the watchdog again found Dr Bellamy, known at the Health Department by her middle name of Maree, had engaged in inappropriate practice after it re-investigated the same 34 consultations at her former Edgecliff practice.
The Professional Services Review had been ordered by the Federal Court to re-examine the consultations after Dr Bellamy successfully appealed its finding that she had inappropriately claimed for too many long consultations in 2000 and 2001.
The watchdog concluded in October 2008 that Dr Bellamy failed to complete adequate medical records for each of the 34 services.
She was also found to have not provided an appropriate level of clinical input into 33 of the 34 services, did not meet the time requirements for 26 of the services and unnecessarily initiated pathology services on 27 occasions.
She was reprimanded last year and ordered to repay $1098.20, the amount of Medicare benefits she received for consultations which were inappropriately billed as long.
Dr Bellamy is one of dozens of doctors caught ripping off Medicare, some of whom may be risking the lives of their patients by ordering inappropriate tests and failing to keep adequate clinical notes.
The Health Department was unaware of the Professional Services Review findings against Dr Bellamy until the Herald contacted it recently. Dr Bellamy has since apologised for failing to disclose the findings, although she is not obliged to do so.An area health spokesman confirmed that its chief executive, Mike Wallace, had not read the watchdog's 2008-09 report, published in March, which names Dr Bellamy, and includes details of the findings against her. The Health Department did not respond to questions about whether its director-general, Debora Picone, or any other executives had read it.
A spokesman for the area health service said: ''Dr Bellamy has apologised for her oversight in not mentioning the outcome of the PSR's review … The area health service is examining the extent to which these findings may impact on her capacity to undertake her role.''
Dr Bellamy's role includes overseeing complaint handling, patient safety and developing initiatives such as faster detection of deteriorating patients and better clinical handover.
Dr Bellamy told the Herald that the watchdog's findings had no relevance to her job.
''The findings raised no concerns about patient safety and there were no adverse patient outcomes,'' she said.
''I have many years of high-level experience in clinical governance and patient safety which make me well qualified for my current role with SSWAHS.''
She said that her former medical practice, which dealt mostly with menopausal women, was unfairly targeted. ''The PSR did not consider that time spent in eliciting a complex history and counselling patients on treatment options amounted to sufficient 'clinical input' to justify claiming a Medicare rebate for a long consultation. I disagreed with this, believing that the time spent talking with patients was of diagnostic and therapeutic benefit to them,'' she said.
An interesting observation by Dr Bellamy in respect of her being eminently qualified to undertake her role as the SSWAHS Director of Clinical Governance for the (Oh dear! There it is again) Balmain to Bowral region that SSWAHS covers. It is strange isn't it that others (lesser mortals than Directors) who apply for positions for which they are eminently qualified are denied employment in clinical positions simply because they upset someone on the SSWAHS Executive and their names were placed on the NSW Watch List or were sacked. It will be interesting to see if SSWAHS decides that some alleged fraudulent actions by one of their new appointees warrants being sacked. On the basis of past SSWAHS efforts and the lack of photographic evidence, my guess is that nothing will happen to Dr Bellamy and the SSWAHS empire will simply absorb this event as if it never happened.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Does the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice deliver the "optimal service" to the people of the Southern Highlands?
Does the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice deliver the "optimal service" to the people of the Southern Highlands as it states on its website? Or is it merely a subservient tool for the Imperial SSWAHS? The local Division seems to be more intent on acquisitions rather than delivering a service to their GPs.
For example, the SH Division employs staff to provide services that are already delivered by private allied health service providers in the community. Yet, because of its influence over the general practitioners it is meant to support, it exercises a monopoly. That is, it recommends GPs to preferentially refer their patients to the member of staff employed by the Division rather than to the private practitioners in the community. Where is the right to choose their practitioner for the patient?
Socrates is aware from personal experience that the general practitioners he has had to see over his long years (treatment for hemlock poisoning, etc), that the majority of GPs do have a mind to treat their patients with respect and provide them with options. This dialogue of mine today is not about the GPs in the Southern Highlands but about their Division and its Chief Executive. Their Chief Executive has openly stated that he will fight to market the Divisional staff to the area's GPs simply to be able to continue to employ them. Who has employed them - well the Chief Executive. But what processes does he follow in employing the staff, and what qualities and skills do they bring to ensure the provision of "optimal care" is delivered by them?
And can the staff employed by the Chief Executive deliver all the programs that he says (in the website) the Division can deliver to the people of the Southern Highlands. There is no doubt that the Aged Care and the Diabetes Coordinators are well experienced in their clinical fields and the services they deliver are well used. But what about the other services that the Division touts on the website? Mental health services delivered to the aged care facilities in the Highlands, the non-directive pregnancy support counselling, the better outcomes in mental health program, the better access mental health program, the mental health nurse incentive program - who delivers these?
These programs are all funded by the federal government through Department of Health and Aging or Medicare Australia. The qualifications of the practitioners used for these programs are dictated by the Medicare Australia and/or the relevant professional college or association. The Division, however uses its own set of hoops to select who it should anoint to do the work. I wonder what Medicare Australia or the Department of Health and Aging would think about the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice? In particular its Chief Executive and its Board.
Socrates is already aware from his reading of the scroll called "The Highlands Doctor" that, for example, GPs are being encouraged to refer their patients to a person for the "Better Access" program when they could be doing some of the "Better Outcomes" program which is funded by the federal government and the Division is the fundholder. Why use a Medicare funded program to keep their staff member employed? Perhaps it has something to do with running out of the funds for "Better Outcomes" because the funds were used for something better - like employing staff rather than providing a service to the patients referred to it.
The other program that seems to have disappeared off the scroll appears to be the Mental Health Nurse Incentive program - another of the Medicare funded programs. From the more ancient scrolls on the Division's website it would appear that the Chief Executive was employing someone who was hoping to be a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse, the only people (besides GPs and psychiatrists) who Medicare allows to participate in the program's delivery. It appears to be a good program (perhaps even a great one) which allows vulnerable people with a severe mental illness to have care coordination by a credentialed mental health nurse so that they might remain out of hospital and be cared for in their own community.
It would seem that the person employed by the Division was not successful in obtaining the credentialed mental health nurse qualification so the Division could no longer use them. From the official website of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses the list of Credentialed Mental Health Nurses shows that there are three qualified and approved CMHNs in the Southern Highlands, which is not bad considering there are only about 800 nation-wide. However, the Division, for reasons unknown, is not supportive of the existing CMHNs and appears to have gone secretive as to their reasons why. The information about the MHNIP is no longer public on the website having been placed in the log-in "doctor's secret business" section on their website.
In the meantime, patients who could or should be referred to this program are not able to be referred because the only two CMHN in the Highland currently being used by GPs are unable to take on any more patients, and the other although credentialed since August 2009 has never received any referrals at all possibly due to misinformation provided by the Division to the local general practitioners.
Hmmm! Socrates has to then wonder at the Division's claim:
For example, the SH Division employs staff to provide services that are already delivered by private allied health service providers in the community. Yet, because of its influence over the general practitioners it is meant to support, it exercises a monopoly. That is, it recommends GPs to preferentially refer their patients to the member of staff employed by the Division rather than to the private practitioners in the community. Where is the right to choose their practitioner for the patient?
Socrates is aware from personal experience that the general practitioners he has had to see over his long years (treatment for hemlock poisoning, etc), that the majority of GPs do have a mind to treat their patients with respect and provide them with options. This dialogue of mine today is not about the GPs in the Southern Highlands but about their Division and its Chief Executive. Their Chief Executive has openly stated that he will fight to market the Divisional staff to the area's GPs simply to be able to continue to employ them. Who has employed them - well the Chief Executive. But what processes does he follow in employing the staff, and what qualities and skills do they bring to ensure the provision of "optimal care" is delivered by them?
And can the staff employed by the Chief Executive deliver all the programs that he says (in the website) the Division can deliver to the people of the Southern Highlands. There is no doubt that the Aged Care and the Diabetes Coordinators are well experienced in their clinical fields and the services they deliver are well used. But what about the other services that the Division touts on the website? Mental health services delivered to the aged care facilities in the Highlands, the non-directive pregnancy support counselling, the better outcomes in mental health program, the better access mental health program, the mental health nurse incentive program - who delivers these?
These programs are all funded by the federal government through Department of Health and Aging or Medicare Australia. The qualifications of the practitioners used for these programs are dictated by the Medicare Australia and/or the relevant professional college or association. The Division, however uses its own set of hoops to select who it should anoint to do the work. I wonder what Medicare Australia or the Department of Health and Aging would think about the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice? In particular its Chief Executive and its Board.
Socrates is already aware from his reading of the scroll called "The Highlands Doctor" that, for example, GPs are being encouraged to refer their patients to a person for the "Better Access" program when they could be doing some of the "Better Outcomes" program which is funded by the federal government and the Division is the fundholder. Why use a Medicare funded program to keep their staff member employed? Perhaps it has something to do with running out of the funds for "Better Outcomes" because the funds were used for something better - like employing staff rather than providing a service to the patients referred to it.
The other program that seems to have disappeared off the scroll appears to be the Mental Health Nurse Incentive program - another of the Medicare funded programs. From the more ancient scrolls on the Division's website it would appear that the Chief Executive was employing someone who was hoping to be a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse, the only people (besides GPs and psychiatrists) who Medicare allows to participate in the program's delivery. It appears to be a good program (perhaps even a great one) which allows vulnerable people with a severe mental illness to have care coordination by a credentialed mental health nurse so that they might remain out of hospital and be cared for in their own community.
It would seem that the person employed by the Division was not successful in obtaining the credentialed mental health nurse qualification so the Division could no longer use them. From the official website of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses the list of Credentialed Mental Health Nurses shows that there are three qualified and approved CMHNs in the Southern Highlands, which is not bad considering there are only about 800 nation-wide. However, the Division, for reasons unknown, is not supportive of the existing CMHNs and appears to have gone secretive as to their reasons why. The information about the MHNIP is no longer public on the website having been placed in the log-in "doctor's secret business" section on their website.
In the meantime, patients who could or should be referred to this program are not able to be referred because the only two CMHN in the Highland currently being used by GPs are unable to take on any more patients, and the other although credentialed since August 2009 has never received any referrals at all possibly due to misinformation provided by the Division to the local general practitioners.
Hmmm! Socrates has to then wonder at the Division's claim:
"Southern Highlands Division of General Practice (SHDGP) is a federally funded not for profit organisation which assists general practitioners and the Health Service to deliver health services to people in the Southern Highlands.
The Division acknowledges the support of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing in respect of funding the Division's activities."
And:
"The mission of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice is to assist local general practitioners in providing optimum care to health consumers in the Southern Highlands area."Does it really, Chief Executive, or is the Division just as money grabbing as the so-called "for profit" organisations? Perhaps it is now time for the merger with the Macarthur Division of General Practice where they don't seem to run out of funds for their funded programs, and they employ people but they still seem to manage to work collaboratively with their general practitioners and with the private sector, especially the allied health and mental health nurses, without having to prostitute themselves to the empire of SSWAHS.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
SSWAHS and the local Division of General Practice.
Welcome to the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice
"Southern Highlands Division of General Practice (SHDGP) is a federally funded not for profit organisation which assists general practitioners and the (SSWAHS) Health Service to deliver health services to people in the Southern Highlands."
In its most recent "Highlands Doctor" newsletter their Chair makes the following comments about the proposed changes in health services generally, and especially community and primary health care. He writes of the "Primary Health Care Organisations" proposed by the federal government.
"What are PHCOs?
The Government has determined that these are best formed from the Divisions – or GP Networks, as they are often now known.
Over the past dozen years, the Divisions have shown that they can unite GPs into public health co-ordination and delivery roles, and gradually change the health culture from a hospital bed based one to one more focused on primary care.
They have successfully been fundholders – for example, in Better Outcomes in Mental Health (BOMH) and More Allied Health Services (MAHS - which has funded our Diabetes program).
The Divisions were the natural contenders to run the PHCOs – though there are a number of other organisations (eg health funds and other “for profit” health companies) which are keen to do the job if GP Divisions are not.
It seems to me that Divisions are best suited for these expanded roles.However, the Government does not wish to deal with a cumbersome number of small PHCOs – there are 110+ Divisions across Australia currently – so it has indicated that it wishes Divisions to seek partners and amalgamate to form PHCOs to serve a population of about 600,000 people.
This means that our Division, serving just 45,000 to 50,000 people, would not be big enough to form a PHCO in our own right. We will now be talking to our neighbouring Divisions to find the partner that has the most commonality in purpose, philosophies, service delivery etc.
All this has to also be examined in the light of the changes in boundaries to the area health services (Sydney South West Area Heath Service is likely to be divided into two or three smaller areas under the Federal proposals).
As we find out more details of the roles that we will be expected to play in the remodelled heath system, we need to identify all the best features of our Division and make sure we maintain these benefits to our doctors, our practices and our patients as we move into these new reforms.
It is heartening to see that the Government has recognised the pressing need for infrastructure funding for general practices - though most GPs feel that 20+ more “super clinics” (what a dismal name – almost as bad as “Medicare Local”?) and 400+ general practice infrastructure grants is just scratching the surface.
If we are going to be working with more practice nurses, allied health workers and co-located with other primary health services (eg Primary Health Nurses), we need more rooms. And we have a growing number of registrars (20% increase in the number of registrars in our local City Coast Country Training (CCCT) organisation for 2011, for example), medical students, PGPPP junior doctors – as well as practice nurse and general nursing trainees seeking experience within GP walls. Again, all need room and/or rooms! Our Division will keep you posted as we work our way through these new reforms. We enjoy a reputation already among Federal and State heath administrators as an innovative, “can do” Division, and I am confident that our experience as Division over the past 16 years will stand us in good stead to take a lead role as we transition into a PHCO.
It is a great opportunity to work out how we can do things better, and with the anticipated funding, make this actually happen.
His comments are followed by those of the Division's Executive Officer. Noticeably in his text there is a sense of contrast to the opening statement of the Southern Highlands Division being a "federally funded not-for-profit organisation which assists general practitioners and the (SSWAHS) Health Service to deliver health services to people in the Southern Highlands."
There are two things in his text which stand out for old Socrates: one is the vision that he has of this being a great opportunity for his Division and others to grab a large part of the pot of taxpayers money to satisfy his vision of an Empire in the south. The second stand-out feature is the total absence of how the Divisional Executive in general, and its Executive Officer in particular sees how this windfall is going to be helpful to the "people in the Southern Highlands".
Call old Socrates a bit of a windbag - but can anyone else see the words - "patients" or "people" in the writings of either of these other windbags? All Socrates can see is a couple of old cronies backslapping each other for managing to extract a lot on money out of current and previous governments for their own plans, staff and programs.
Primary Health Care Organisations (PHCOs):
These are now being called ‘Medicare Locals’ by the Government – apparently reflecting a move away from ‘Primary’ given the pending legal action surrounding that title.
This new name is being resisted by AGPN and the Divisions and, in company with many others, we are continuing to use the term PHCO.
Boundaries for the sixty or so PHCOs, to which the existing 111 GP Divisions will be reduced, are to be agreed between the Commonwealth and the States by December 2010. This will have regard to the boundaries of the new Hospital Networks.
In the case of the SSWAHS Hospitals, it is possible that we will know the network boundaries as soon as late this year. However the current betting seems to be favouring a two way split, with our network including Liverpool Hospital.
Key strategies for PHCOs will move away from predominantly individual clinician based membership, with activity and governance to be more reflective of wider community based health care providers.
GPs are to remain the cornerstone in the overarching governance structure. Amongst other things, PHCOs will have responsibility for after hours services; strategic planning and development; workforce issues; and population health.
We understand that PHCOs are to cover populations of up to 600,000 people and therefore one thing is certain in our case. That is, we are too small to be able to constitute a PHCO. Indeed, the AGPN has just released the Cranny Report into the suggested PHCO boundaries which has us amalgamated with Macarthur Division.
To this end, we have commenced negotiations with Macarthur Division to, amongst other things, ensure that we retain our rural status and activities and our local management. However, there are still hurdles to cross, including that, while the Government acknowledges the Cranny Report, at the end of the day, PHCOs have to relate to the future Hospital Networks as agreed with the States.
This is to be agreed by December of this year under the COAG agreement.
We are collaborating with Macarthur Division to go all out to be in the first round, since waiting until the later date will carry the danger of a longer period of instability.
Other measures flowing from the Commonwealth Budget which are worth repeating include a national EHealth System to be in place over the next two years; more GPs; 23 new Super Clinics and work on 425 existing practice premises to allow team based care; the Practice Nurse Program; paid training for PNs; better support for RACF nurses; more mental health nurses; more mental health programs; and the new Diabetes program.
It is noteworthy that PHCOs in various forms now exist in New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the US. It is expected that there will be a Canberra-based central PHCO as well as State branches.
Lastly, any Division that doesn’t move into the PHCO model will not be funded beyond 2012. Perhaps most importantly of all for GPs, the PHCOs will not control individual GP practice matters.
Warwick Ruscoe
Even more alarming is the unholy alliance with SSWAHS looks as though it is going to be the preferred option for the Southern Highlands Division if the prediction from the Executive Officer is correct about the links with Liverpool Hospital, the Imperial home of the SSWAHS Executive.
Perhaps the Southern Highlanders should be asked by the State and Federal Health Ministers whether we want more of the same treatment that has been dished out to us by Liverpool and SSWAHS.
"Southern Highlands Division of General Practice (SHDGP) is a federally funded not for profit organisation which assists general practitioners and the (SSWAHS) Health Service to deliver health services to people in the Southern Highlands."
In its most recent "Highlands Doctor" newsletter their Chair makes the following comments about the proposed changes in health services generally, and especially community and primary health care. He writes of the "Primary Health Care Organisations" proposed by the federal government.
"What are PHCOs?
The Government has determined that these are best formed from the Divisions – or GP Networks, as they are often now known.
Over the past dozen years, the Divisions have shown that they can unite GPs into public health co-ordination and delivery roles, and gradually change the health culture from a hospital bed based one to one more focused on primary care.
They have successfully been fundholders – for example, in Better Outcomes in Mental Health (BOMH) and More Allied Health Services (MAHS - which has funded our Diabetes program).
The Divisions were the natural contenders to run the PHCOs – though there are a number of other organisations (eg health funds and other “for profit” health companies) which are keen to do the job if GP Divisions are not.
It seems to me that Divisions are best suited for these expanded roles.However, the Government does not wish to deal with a cumbersome number of small PHCOs – there are 110+ Divisions across Australia currently – so it has indicated that it wishes Divisions to seek partners and amalgamate to form PHCOs to serve a population of about 600,000 people.
This means that our Division, serving just 45,000 to 50,000 people, would not be big enough to form a PHCO in our own right. We will now be talking to our neighbouring Divisions to find the partner that has the most commonality in purpose, philosophies, service delivery etc.
All this has to also be examined in the light of the changes in boundaries to the area health services (Sydney South West Area Heath Service is likely to be divided into two or three smaller areas under the Federal proposals).
As we find out more details of the roles that we will be expected to play in the remodelled heath system, we need to identify all the best features of our Division and make sure we maintain these benefits to our doctors, our practices and our patients as we move into these new reforms.
It is heartening to see that the Government has recognised the pressing need for infrastructure funding for general practices - though most GPs feel that 20+ more “super clinics” (what a dismal name – almost as bad as “Medicare Local”?) and 400+ general practice infrastructure grants is just scratching the surface.
If we are going to be working with more practice nurses, allied health workers and co-located with other primary health services (eg Primary Health Nurses), we need more rooms. And we have a growing number of registrars (20% increase in the number of registrars in our local City Coast Country Training (CCCT) organisation for 2011, for example), medical students, PGPPP junior doctors – as well as practice nurse and general nursing trainees seeking experience within GP walls. Again, all need room and/or rooms! Our Division will keep you posted as we work our way through these new reforms. We enjoy a reputation already among Federal and State heath administrators as an innovative, “can do” Division, and I am confident that our experience as Division over the past 16 years will stand us in good stead to take a lead role as we transition into a PHCO.
It is a great opportunity to work out how we can do things better, and with the anticipated funding, make this actually happen.
His comments are followed by those of the Division's Executive Officer. Noticeably in his text there is a sense of contrast to the opening statement of the Southern Highlands Division being a "federally funded not-for-profit organisation which assists general practitioners and the (SSWAHS) Health Service to deliver health services to people in the Southern Highlands."
There are two things in his text which stand out for old Socrates: one is the vision that he has of this being a great opportunity for his Division and others to grab a large part of the pot of taxpayers money to satisfy his vision of an Empire in the south. The second stand-out feature is the total absence of how the Divisional Executive in general, and its Executive Officer in particular sees how this windfall is going to be helpful to the "people in the Southern Highlands".
Call old Socrates a bit of a windbag - but can anyone else see the words - "patients" or "people" in the writings of either of these other windbags? All Socrates can see is a couple of old cronies backslapping each other for managing to extract a lot on money out of current and previous governments for their own plans, staff and programs.
Primary Health Care Organisations (PHCOs):
These are now being called ‘Medicare Locals’ by the Government – apparently reflecting a move away from ‘Primary’ given the pending legal action surrounding that title.
This new name is being resisted by AGPN and the Divisions and, in company with many others, we are continuing to use the term PHCO.
Boundaries for the sixty or so PHCOs, to which the existing 111 GP Divisions will be reduced, are to be agreed between the Commonwealth and the States by December 2010. This will have regard to the boundaries of the new Hospital Networks.
In the case of the SSWAHS Hospitals, it is possible that we will know the network boundaries as soon as late this year. However the current betting seems to be favouring a two way split, with our network including Liverpool Hospital.
Key strategies for PHCOs will move away from predominantly individual clinician based membership, with activity and governance to be more reflective of wider community based health care providers.
GPs are to remain the cornerstone in the overarching governance structure. Amongst other things, PHCOs will have responsibility for after hours services; strategic planning and development; workforce issues; and population health.
We understand that PHCOs are to cover populations of up to 600,000 people and therefore one thing is certain in our case. That is, we are too small to be able to constitute a PHCO. Indeed, the AGPN has just released the Cranny Report into the suggested PHCO boundaries which has us amalgamated with Macarthur Division.
To this end, we have commenced negotiations with Macarthur Division to, amongst other things, ensure that we retain our rural status and activities and our local management. However, there are still hurdles to cross, including that, while the Government acknowledges the Cranny Report, at the end of the day, PHCOs have to relate to the future Hospital Networks as agreed with the States.
This is to be agreed by December of this year under the COAG agreement.
We are collaborating with Macarthur Division to go all out to be in the first round, since waiting until the later date will carry the danger of a longer period of instability.
Other measures flowing from the Commonwealth Budget which are worth repeating include a national EHealth System to be in place over the next two years; more GPs; 23 new Super Clinics and work on 425 existing practice premises to allow team based care; the Practice Nurse Program; paid training for PNs; better support for RACF nurses; more mental health nurses; more mental health programs; and the new Diabetes program.
It is noteworthy that PHCOs in various forms now exist in New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the US. It is expected that there will be a Canberra-based central PHCO as well as State branches.
Lastly, any Division that doesn’t move into the PHCO model will not be funded beyond 2012. Perhaps most importantly of all for GPs, the PHCOs will not control individual GP practice matters.
Warwick Ruscoe
Even more alarming is the unholy alliance with SSWAHS looks as though it is going to be the preferred option for the Southern Highlands Division if the prediction from the Executive Officer is correct about the links with Liverpool Hospital, the Imperial home of the SSWAHS Executive.
Perhaps the Southern Highlanders should be asked by the State and Federal Health Ministers whether we want more of the same treatment that has been dished out to us by Liverpool and SSWAHS.
Friday, August 6, 2010
SSWAHS and the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice - An unholy alliance?
SSWAHS has a way of ingratiating itself with subservient organisations by throwing a bit of money their way. This notion of buying friendship is not unknown in political circles. Ancient Athenian and Roman society was notorious for it, and little has changed in the intervening years.
What SSWAHS gets in return are organisations willing to do the work that SSWAHS should be doing for the health and wellbeing of the residents of its empire, and generally, the work is done for a pittance. The other thing SSWAHS obtains is the silence of the organisations it funds. Organisations that might normally be advocates, activists or, the gods forbid, agitators on behalf of the marginalised and vulnerable in the SSWAHS empire bite their lips and remember the cheque is in the mail.
A classic example in SSWAHS is the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice. This Division is supposedly the representative organisation of most of the general practitioners in the Southern Highlands. Their website trumpets more about their links with governments - both state and federal - but mostly about their unusual relationship with SSWAHS from whom they seek both money and glory. This is what they say about SSWAHS:
"External Relations
What SSWAHS gets in return are organisations willing to do the work that SSWAHS should be doing for the health and wellbeing of the residents of its empire, and generally, the work is done for a pittance. The other thing SSWAHS obtains is the silence of the organisations it funds. Organisations that might normally be advocates, activists or, the gods forbid, agitators on behalf of the marginalised and vulnerable in the SSWAHS empire bite their lips and remember the cheque is in the mail.
A classic example in SSWAHS is the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice. This Division is supposedly the representative organisation of most of the general practitioners in the Southern Highlands. Their website trumpets more about their links with governments - both state and federal - but mostly about their unusual relationship with SSWAHS from whom they seek both money and glory. This is what they say about SSWAHS:
"External Relations
A sound relationship has been established with the Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS) which reaches from Camperdown to Wingello covering seven Division areas. These Divisions have a close working relationship with SSWAHS.
Southern Highlands Division has a long established and close working relationship with the Wingecarribee section of the Area Health Service.
This relationship includes:
- a fully integrated diabetes service which is based on the CARDIAB data base
- an integrated program for secondary prevention in ischaemic heart disease to also be based on the CARDIAB data base
- the supply of medical services to the local CAPAC (Community Acute Post Acute Care) and the Palliative Care Program operated by the Area Health Service
- the Division's After Hours Service being designed to reduce the GP patient load on the Bowral Hospital Emergency Department as well as meeting GP and community needs
- regular Liaison Committee Meetings with the Area Health Service representative
- the Division is located in the grounds of Bowral Hospital
- close working relations between GPs and the Community Health Service and the Mental Health Service.
Being a rural area, Division members provide VMO services to the local hospital at Bowral (BDH). This includes 7 GPs providing one admitting officer at all times; four GPs providing low risk obstetric care; one GP surgeon. A number of members act as Medical Officers in the hospital Emergency Department. Members also serve on Area Health Service Committees including standing committees such as Quality Assurance and Clinical Council and various ad hoc committees."
In reading this one would think that this is an organisation that has the interest of all its patients and residents at heart. With such an involvement with SSWAHS and with such a "long established and close working relationship" with SSWAHS, one could be excused for thinking that with all those Highlands general practitioners, and especially those acting as emergency department doctors, Visiting Medical Officers, members of Standing Committees, and working in the Maternity Ward, they would have been advocates for their patients at the "save our hospital and health services" rally a couple of months ago. Apart from an orthopaedic surgeon, already known for his advocacy, there was no obvious representation from local general practitioners and none from their Division, which is situated on the grounds of Bowral Hospital courtesy of SSWAHS. There has been no public outrage from the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice and nor should we expect to see any for they tread the safe path.
Perhaps their Executive Officer and their Board should take the time to review their Division's Mission Statement and decide on whether they truly assist their members to provide the "optimum care to health consumers in the Southern Highlands area." It may be time that the Division and its Board recognize that they also have a responsibility to the residents of the Highlands to advocate more strongly to SSWAHS for the rights of those health consumers to have the treatments they need here - in the Southern Highlands! Perhaps now is the time for the Division to bite the hand that feeds it.
The mission of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice is to assist local general practitioners in providing optimum care to health consumers in the Southern Highlands area."
Is it really so, Executive Director and Board members of the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice?
Thursday, August 5, 2010
SSWAHS on the decline!
Well today we heard that the NSW Health bureaucrats have taken their knife to the monolithic creations of 2005 and have said that the eight mega AHS's will change to seventeen Health district networks. So even without knowing the detail it certainly appears that the SSWAHS executive will be pontificating over a smaller area than the one they have now. Going, going, gone (hopefully) will be their bellowing cry - "Balmain to Bowral", possibly the two places in their empire that neither the CEO or his Deputy have even bothered to visit.
Socrates understands that when the Central Sydney Area Health merged with, what was then, the South West Sydney AHS in 2005 to form SSWAHS, most of the staff who took the top jobs came from the north. Their mindset remained in the north and anything that was good in the old SWSAHS was considered to be inferior.
It wasn't long before the new senators decided that "clinical streams" were to be the new way of doing things. Well, what a cash grab that turned out to be. People who worked in the clinical services in a collaborative health care "Team" suddenly became "owned" by Area Directors far removed from the site of operations. Suddenly, people who previously collaborated in the care of ill people were instructed to follow the new party line - the "Clinical Stream". Even within existing services, splits became apparent. So, solo nurse practitioners who worked in a collaborative way with community health nurses were hived off to different clinical streams. Generalist counsellors who worked collaboratively with mental health workers were placed into different clinical streams within streams. Adolescent mental health services suddenly became dis-integrated from adult mental health streams. For more than 3 years the SSWAHS health service providers did not have a resolution to where they would be located in whichever, Clinical Stream the SSWAHS executive finally decided upon.
One can only guess at the level of disharmony and disunity that existed in the SSWAHS workforce while the SSWAHS executive fiddled in Liverpool. The smell of smoke was all pervasive! Too many Nero s with fiddles and all trying to outdo each other. Micromanagement on a meglomaniac scale!
And now it is all about to change! If the current NSW Government remains or changes in March 2011, the monolithic structures like SSWAHS will be brought down. If the Federal government changes or remains the monolithic structures like SSWAHS will change!
So the moral of this tale is that it really doesn't mean a fig who you vote for these elections, change will come to SSWAHS and the Highlands health services will soon be returned to the people. Long live democracy and the Athens of the south!
Socrates understands that when the Central Sydney Area Health merged with, what was then, the South West Sydney AHS in 2005 to form SSWAHS, most of the staff who took the top jobs came from the north. Their mindset remained in the north and anything that was good in the old SWSAHS was considered to be inferior.
It wasn't long before the new senators decided that "clinical streams" were to be the new way of doing things. Well, what a cash grab that turned out to be. People who worked in the clinical services in a collaborative health care "Team" suddenly became "owned" by Area Directors far removed from the site of operations. Suddenly, people who previously collaborated in the care of ill people were instructed to follow the new party line - the "Clinical Stream". Even within existing services, splits became apparent. So, solo nurse practitioners who worked in a collaborative way with community health nurses were hived off to different clinical streams. Generalist counsellors who worked collaboratively with mental health workers were placed into different clinical streams within streams. Adolescent mental health services suddenly became dis-integrated from adult mental health streams. For more than 3 years the SSWAHS health service providers did not have a resolution to where they would be located in whichever, Clinical Stream the SSWAHS executive finally decided upon.
One can only guess at the level of disharmony and disunity that existed in the SSWAHS workforce while the SSWAHS executive fiddled in Liverpool. The smell of smoke was all pervasive! Too many Nero s with fiddles and all trying to outdo each other. Micromanagement on a meglomaniac scale!
And now it is all about to change! If the current NSW Government remains or changes in March 2011, the monolithic structures like SSWAHS will be brought down. If the Federal government changes or remains the monolithic structures like SSWAHS will change!
So the moral of this tale is that it really doesn't mean a fig who you vote for these elections, change will come to SSWAHS and the Highlands health services will soon be returned to the people. Long live democracy and the Athens of the south!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
SSWAHS and their staff.
Now you might think that old Socrates is just gnawing on the bones of SSWAHS with the previous posts on this blog. Happily, I can tell you that there's still a lot of meaty bits on the bones of SSWAHS as we will see in the future.
However, let me be quick to make the point about the SSWAHS staff, particularly those who live and work in the Southern Highlands. Generally, they are faultless - with a work ethic that would shame the SSWAHS executive and bureaucrats in Liverpool and beyond. Apart from the exception of the person described in an earlier post, they do their work and make do with the very little that the SSWAHS administration provides to them.
There are people in both Bowral Hospital and the Community Health Centre who have spent many years engaging with their community, listening to their community and delivering to the best of their abilities the sort of quality health services that local people have expected and needed. In fact, the reason that Bowral Hospital and the community health services have been financially supported by the local community and businesses, to purchase equipment and develop specialist services, has been because of the respect that the community has for their District Hospital and its staff. Nursing, medical, allied health, and hotel services staff have all contributed their best in the care they deliver to their patients.
Too bad the same cannot be said about the executive staff of SSWAHS who rarely, if ever, even visit the Southern Highlands and, when the proverbial faeces hits the fan, they vanish like smoke and leave it to the local General Manager, Denis Thomas, to cop the flack and give the hard answers. Socrates believes that Denis Thomas doesn't get paid enough for his job! SSWAHS has put him out there with a bullseye painted on his back and nothing but an expired Harry Potter wand in his hand.
One consolation the Highlander community can have is that generally all the Wingecarribee staff are usually supportive of each other (apart from a notable exception) and remain determined to provide their best clinical and other support service to the community.
Socrates, at least, will attempt in this democracy to make his vote count in the upcoming elections, both Federal and State, to ensure that Bowral Hospital and its health services get the recognition it deserves and the local management which will give the best direction to our future in the Highlands.
Long may our democratic rights remain, and may our collective votes ensure the future growth of our local community.
And, if the Gods are really listening, perhaps they would like to send a serve of the pox on the SSWAHS Executive. :-))
However, let me be quick to make the point about the SSWAHS staff, particularly those who live and work in the Southern Highlands. Generally, they are faultless - with a work ethic that would shame the SSWAHS executive and bureaucrats in Liverpool and beyond. Apart from the exception of the person described in an earlier post, they do their work and make do with the very little that the SSWAHS administration provides to them.
There are people in both Bowral Hospital and the Community Health Centre who have spent many years engaging with their community, listening to their community and delivering to the best of their abilities the sort of quality health services that local people have expected and needed. In fact, the reason that Bowral Hospital and the community health services have been financially supported by the local community and businesses, to purchase equipment and develop specialist services, has been because of the respect that the community has for their District Hospital and its staff. Nursing, medical, allied health, and hotel services staff have all contributed their best in the care they deliver to their patients.
Too bad the same cannot be said about the executive staff of SSWAHS who rarely, if ever, even visit the Southern Highlands and, when the proverbial faeces hits the fan, they vanish like smoke and leave it to the local General Manager, Denis Thomas, to cop the flack and give the hard answers. Socrates believes that Denis Thomas doesn't get paid enough for his job! SSWAHS has put him out there with a bullseye painted on his back and nothing but an expired Harry Potter wand in his hand.
One consolation the Highlander community can have is that generally all the Wingecarribee staff are usually supportive of each other (apart from a notable exception) and remain determined to provide their best clinical and other support service to the community.
Socrates, at least, will attempt in this democracy to make his vote count in the upcoming elections, both Federal and State, to ensure that Bowral Hospital and its health services get the recognition it deserves and the local management which will give the best direction to our future in the Highlands.
Long may our democratic rights remain, and may our collective votes ensure the future growth of our local community.
And, if the Gods are really listening, perhaps they would like to send a serve of the pox on the SSWAHS Executive. :-))
SSWAHS and their idea of OH&S for community based staff
One of the expectations that employees of any organisation would expect is that the bosses would be warm to the idea of keeping their staff safe. I know that employees have an equal responsibility to ensure they keep their workplace safe and ensure that their fellow employees and customers are also kept safe.
One thing about the SSWAHS, like any other monolithic NSW Health Area, they have a lot of staff in all those hospitals full of machines that go "ping". Even the SSWAHS community health services staff (although they don't seem to have any machines that go "ping") are expected to comply with Occupational Health and Safety policies. Now one would think that staff working in SSWAHS inpatient units in SSWAHS hospitals would be well protected by barriers, security duress alarms and security personnel. Actually, that's true. Well done SSWAHS!
Now let's turn our attention to those less fortunate SSWAHS staff. Those who work within the community health settings. Okay, Bowral community health centre does now have a security barrier of sorts, and they now have had their duress alarms placed under the desks in the consulting rooms. The big red ones on the wall used to be set off accidentally by the children who thought they were for communicating with Mr Squiggle. However, there is no security staff on-site, as SSWAHS has an inherent belief that the local police will come swiftly to any brawl that might erupt in the foyer. Well let's share the optimism of SSWAHS for the moment and say that the staff at the Bowral CHC are pretty well covered under the requirements of the OH&S legislation.
But hang on a minute! Don't staff of the Bowral CHC also do home visits to tend patients in their homes, and don't a lot of people in the Southern Highlands live in pretty remote locations? Even Socrates may have to see a community health nurse for the purpose of treatment for an overdose of hemlock! And Athenian society can be a bit brutish!
So what, or who, protects the SSWAHS community nurse who sallies out of the Bowral CHC into the wilds of the Wingecarribee? Well I can tell you that besides telling the front desk where they might be going each time they go out, SSWAHS over-extends itself to send their staff off to training in self-defence measures. Wow! So I guess the 40+ year old staff members will be in their prime condition to fend off someone who wants to beat them up.
Let's take a single example for comparison. The mental health staff in an inpatient unit are all issued with duress alarms which can be activated manually or automatically. The latter is especially important if the staff are knocked down. Not only is the alarm triggered so other staff can be sent to assist but the actual location of the injured staff member comes up on computer screens in the unit. You might think that this is equipment which can only be used on-site in an inpatient unit. Not so! About five years ago the Bowral Mental Health Service collaborated with the manufacturer of the same system to design a similar duress alarm for community-based staff.
A unit was developed that worked well in even the most remote areas of the Highlands. The principle was the inpatient-type duress unit was linked to a GPS service and telecommunications provider. The duress alarm was carried by the community worker, the GPS location and sending unit was located in the SSWAHS vehicle. If the worker was attacked, or the car was disabled they could trigger the alarm and a receiver at the Bowral CHC could identify the location of the worker and the vehicle. Being portable, this duress system could be transferred from one car to another driven by any Bowral community health worker who needed to be doing home visits.
Of course, SSWAHS was informed about this new technology and a request was made to purchase a few units for the SSWAHS fleet at Bowral CHC. Socrates is reliably informed that the request was firmly knocked on the head by a senior member of the SSWAHS Executive who, it is alleged, said that if Bowral got the portable duress units every community nurse would want one. Well I guess they might. After all, it's not just dangerous for SSWAHS staff only in hospitals you know. It's also pretty wild out there in the community too!
So back to the OH&S responsibility of the employer, SSWAHS, for its community-based staff. I guess the staff will have to stick with the thrust and parry routine of self-defence they are taught, and reminded of, from time to time in their working life.
Oh, and that brilliant mobile duress alarm system developed for community-based staff? In 2009 the Mental Health Service of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne bought and issued the units to their community care staff. Well, that's one organisation that takes its OH&S responsibilities more seriously than SSWAHS! Shame on you, SSWAHS, shame!
One thing about the SSWAHS, like any other monolithic NSW Health Area, they have a lot of staff in all those hospitals full of machines that go "ping". Even the SSWAHS community health services staff (although they don't seem to have any machines that go "ping") are expected to comply with Occupational Health and Safety policies. Now one would think that staff working in SSWAHS inpatient units in SSWAHS hospitals would be well protected by barriers, security duress alarms and security personnel. Actually, that's true. Well done SSWAHS!
Now let's turn our attention to those less fortunate SSWAHS staff. Those who work within the community health settings. Okay, Bowral community health centre does now have a security barrier of sorts, and they now have had their duress alarms placed under the desks in the consulting rooms. The big red ones on the wall used to be set off accidentally by the children who thought they were for communicating with Mr Squiggle. However, there is no security staff on-site, as SSWAHS has an inherent belief that the local police will come swiftly to any brawl that might erupt in the foyer. Well let's share the optimism of SSWAHS for the moment and say that the staff at the Bowral CHC are pretty well covered under the requirements of the OH&S legislation.
But hang on a minute! Don't staff of the Bowral CHC also do home visits to tend patients in their homes, and don't a lot of people in the Southern Highlands live in pretty remote locations? Even Socrates may have to see a community health nurse for the purpose of treatment for an overdose of hemlock! And Athenian society can be a bit brutish!
So what, or who, protects the SSWAHS community nurse who sallies out of the Bowral CHC into the wilds of the Wingecarribee? Well I can tell you that besides telling the front desk where they might be going each time they go out, SSWAHS over-extends itself to send their staff off to training in self-defence measures. Wow! So I guess the 40+ year old staff members will be in their prime condition to fend off someone who wants to beat them up.
Let's take a single example for comparison. The mental health staff in an inpatient unit are all issued with duress alarms which can be activated manually or automatically. The latter is especially important if the staff are knocked down. Not only is the alarm triggered so other staff can be sent to assist but the actual location of the injured staff member comes up on computer screens in the unit. You might think that this is equipment which can only be used on-site in an inpatient unit. Not so! About five years ago the Bowral Mental Health Service collaborated with the manufacturer of the same system to design a similar duress alarm for community-based staff.
A unit was developed that worked well in even the most remote areas of the Highlands. The principle was the inpatient-type duress unit was linked to a GPS service and telecommunications provider. The duress alarm was carried by the community worker, the GPS location and sending unit was located in the SSWAHS vehicle. If the worker was attacked, or the car was disabled they could trigger the alarm and a receiver at the Bowral CHC could identify the location of the worker and the vehicle. Being portable, this duress system could be transferred from one car to another driven by any Bowral community health worker who needed to be doing home visits.
Of course, SSWAHS was informed about this new technology and a request was made to purchase a few units for the SSWAHS fleet at Bowral CHC. Socrates is reliably informed that the request was firmly knocked on the head by a senior member of the SSWAHS Executive who, it is alleged, said that if Bowral got the portable duress units every community nurse would want one. Well I guess they might. After all, it's not just dangerous for SSWAHS staff only in hospitals you know. It's also pretty wild out there in the community too!
So back to the OH&S responsibility of the employer, SSWAHS, for its community-based staff. I guess the staff will have to stick with the thrust and parry routine of self-defence they are taught, and reminded of, from time to time in their working life.
Oh, and that brilliant mobile duress alarm system developed for community-based staff? In 2009 the Mental Health Service of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne bought and issued the units to their community care staff. Well, that's one organisation that takes its OH&S responsibilities more seriously than SSWAHS! Shame on you, SSWAHS, shame!
ICAC and SSWAHS - Mission Impossible?
Now we all know that if anyone, especially those who wish to blow the whistle on corruption, read the newspapers, watch the telly or even listen to the Executive of an Area Health Service like SSWAHS, sees something that looks corrupt and smells corrupt there is a good chance that it is corrupt.
Socrates has been told that a community member from the Highlands wrote to ICAC in November 2009, with a statement that there had been alleged corrupt conduct by a staff member working in the Bowral health services. Basically, the allegations related to the staff member entering on his time sheet that he was on duty at work when he was, in fact, at home painting his house. So, he was effectively being paid by SSWAHS to paint his house instead of working with the health service and doing his job. I guess we all have some idea of just how long it does take to paint a house in Bowral when you're doing it yourself! A second allegation made to ICAC about this same individual was that when rostered on-duty on weekends he sometimes took to a couch and had a nap instead of contacting health consumers or visiting patients in the hospital or the community.
The behaviour of this person looks corrupt and smells corrupt so you'd think that ICAC would be interested in it. Well, no they weren't. The reason given was that the member of the community "had no direct knowledge of the allegations of these complaints", and if the staff member "was intentionally missing work to do something at home, it does not appear to meet the requirement of serious and systemic corrupt conduct." At least the ICAC did decide to refer the matter of the allegations to the AHS "for their information" and action if SSWAHS deemed it appropriate. Oh, dear! I hear you groan. Another of SSWAHS's internal investigations!
Well Socrates does have to uncover his head to them because SSWAHS did send along that pesky investigator of theirs who spoke to a couple of staff who, apparently, were able to confirm the truth of the activities of the staff member described in the letter to ICAC. One of the Vestal Virgins (or was it the Muse?) of the Bowral Temple heard that the SSWAHS investigator's parting comment went something along the lines of "Hmmm! as there is no photographic evidence that these events did take place, I suspect that nothing will come of it". And blow my flute and dance a bacchanalia - he was right!
So next time you attend court before a magistrate tell him or her to forget the statements of eyewitnesses and others and demand to see their photographic proof.
I guess most businesses would be somewhat unwilling to keep employed someone who defrauded the business by falsifying documents like a time sheet and who continued the fraud over some time. Strange isn't it, that recently ICAC spent a lot of time and money investigating a certain NSW politician over her falsification of her staff member's time sheets. So I guess her falsification of time sheets did "appear to meet the requirement of serious and systemic corrupt conduct." Go figure it!
Well if you are so inclined to rort your employer - get a job with SSWAHS. Socrates has heard that they recently made that particular staff member a Manager. I guess it takes one to know one - which is a good line on which to finish this post.
Socrates has been told that a community member from the Highlands wrote to ICAC in November 2009, with a statement that there had been alleged corrupt conduct by a staff member working in the Bowral health services. Basically, the allegations related to the staff member entering on his time sheet that he was on duty at work when he was, in fact, at home painting his house. So, he was effectively being paid by SSWAHS to paint his house instead of working with the health service and doing his job. I guess we all have some idea of just how long it does take to paint a house in Bowral when you're doing it yourself! A second allegation made to ICAC about this same individual was that when rostered on-duty on weekends he sometimes took to a couch and had a nap instead of contacting health consumers or visiting patients in the hospital or the community.
The behaviour of this person looks corrupt and smells corrupt so you'd think that ICAC would be interested in it. Well, no they weren't. The reason given was that the member of the community "had no direct knowledge of the allegations of these complaints", and if the staff member "was intentionally missing work to do something at home, it does not appear to meet the requirement of serious and systemic corrupt conduct." At least the ICAC did decide to refer the matter of the allegations to the AHS "for their information" and action if SSWAHS deemed it appropriate. Oh, dear! I hear you groan. Another of SSWAHS's internal investigations!
Well Socrates does have to uncover his head to them because SSWAHS did send along that pesky investigator of theirs who spoke to a couple of staff who, apparently, were able to confirm the truth of the activities of the staff member described in the letter to ICAC. One of the Vestal Virgins (or was it the Muse?) of the Bowral Temple heard that the SSWAHS investigator's parting comment went something along the lines of "Hmmm! as there is no photographic evidence that these events did take place, I suspect that nothing will come of it". And blow my flute and dance a bacchanalia - he was right!
So next time you attend court before a magistrate tell him or her to forget the statements of eyewitnesses and others and demand to see their photographic proof.
I guess most businesses would be somewhat unwilling to keep employed someone who defrauded the business by falsifying documents like a time sheet and who continued the fraud over some time. Strange isn't it, that recently ICAC spent a lot of time and money investigating a certain NSW politician over her falsification of her staff member's time sheets. So I guess her falsification of time sheets did "appear to meet the requirement of serious and systemic corrupt conduct." Go figure it!
Well if you are so inclined to rort your employer - get a job with SSWAHS. Socrates has heard that they recently made that particular staff member a Manager. I guess it takes one to know one - which is a good line on which to finish this post.
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