Jeremy Hanson, acting leader of the Canberra Liberals, said yesterday that the Health and Infrastructure Enabling Bill was “a way for the government to legalise breaking their promise and breaking their word”, and to “take over the hospital without the consent of staff or providers”.
The bill, which passed the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday evening, enables the ACT Government to compulsorily acquire the site of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce and to transition the hospital’s staff, assets, and services to Canberra Health Services. In so doing, it breaks the Calvary Network Agreement and Crown Lease, which were due to expire in 2098.
“It takes all the land, it takes all of the assets, it takes all of the systems, it takes all of their people, it takes all of their information, it takes all of their contracts, and it takes all of that hard work and good will, and it takes everything else that the government wants,” Mr Hanson said.
“If Calvary do not comply by 3 July, the bill contains the threat of the government calling in the police to use force to acquire it.”
Mr Hanson referred to a clause authorising “a police officer or other stated person to provide assistance or use force as is reasonably necessary to allow an authorised person to exercise their power under section 11 [Territory may enter hospital land]”.
“It’s quite extraordinary, the thought that if a nurse or staff member isn’t complying, the police might be called in to use force,” Mr Hanson said.
Mr Hanson disparaged the ACT Government’s claim that the short transition period (barely a month) is to “minimise the uncertainty for staff”. Calvary doctors are angry they were not consulted; senior nurses said the announcement of the acquisition – announced on social media, without telling Calvary staff – was disgraceful and reflected poorly on government leadership; and the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF), the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) said their members were distressed. Some did not want to return to Canberra Hospital after bad experiences there.
“The comments from frontline staff make an absolute mockery of the ministers’ claim that this bill is being treated as urgent to look after staff welfare,” Mr Hanson said. “Staff are saying the exact opposite. They want consultation, and they want proper process.
“The way that the minister [Rachel Stephen-Smith] has falsely hidden behind claims of staff welfare to ram this bill through without proper scrutiny is disingenuous and disrespectful. How many staff will now want to work for her and Canberra Health Services after this? I hope they do, but who could blame staff for walking away after they’ve been treated with such little respect from this government?”
Mr Hanson disagreed with the government’s view that they could run Calvary Public Hospital better than Calvary runs it.
“Look at what the ACT Government delivers in terms of health in the ACT: it’s in many ways the worst performing health system in Australia. You wait longer for emergency department treatments than anyone else in any other jurisdiction. You’ve got cardiologists writing to ministers to say it’s unsafe. The foetal medical unit has lost its accreditation. WorkSafe has been called into the [Intensive Care Unit]. There’s a long list of problems, including the [toxic] culture at Canberra Hospital. That’s why the Canberra Liberals called for a Royal Commission.”
He also quoted Dr Paul Burke, former head of anaesthetics at both Canberra Hospital and Calvary Public Hospital, who accused the ACT Government of dubious managerial competence in the administration of the health service it runs – including problems in cardiology, obstetrics, intensive care, paediatrics, and plastic surgery.
“Calvary Hospital has got a much better culture, and in many ways delivers better outcomes than Canberra Hospital,” Mr Hanson said. “So [the government’s] arguments do not ring true.”
Mr Hanson also concludes that “an attack on faith” is part of the ACT Government’s reason for the acquisition – a claim the government, incidentally, denies.
A recent government Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice in the ACT found it “problematic that one of the ACT’s major hospitals is, due to an overriding religious ethos, restricted to the services that can be delivered to the Canberra community… The ACT Government needs to address … an ethically fraught dependence on the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary for provision of health services.”
Calvary Public Hospital only provides abortion services in cases of emergency; but Canberra Public Hospital and the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children only perform abortions in cases of severe foetal abnormality or maternal morbidity. Similarly, Calvary told an ACT Government inquiry into End of Life Choices that it “cannot support the notion that assisting a person to suicide, or to end their life directly and intentionally, is an expression of care. We strive to eliminate suffering, but not the people who are experiencing the pain or physical inability that may inform their suffering.” The ACT Government believes that assisted dying should be a human right.
Not only Catholics, Mr Hanson noted, but members of other religions are concerned about the ACT Government’s attitude to religion. For instance, he quoted Dean Sahu Khan, the Muslim president of the Canberra Interfaith Forum, who was “disappointed by the unfortunately arbitrary actions for the compulsory acquisition… The government’s interference manifested some sort of hatred for religion and for people of faith.”
Mr Hanson worries the government’s acquisition of Calvary Public Hospital could set a precedent. Clare Holland House, Calvary’s hospice; Catholic schools; and the racecourse could be next.
“You cannot trust this government,” Mr Hanson said. “From this day forward, whenever this government says something, even if they write it in a contract, you cannot trust them.”