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FORTY per cent of Albury Wodonga Health staff have told a survey they are victims of workplace bullying.
The service is deeply shocked by the result of the survey, which it believes is representative of the 1700-member workforce.
It described the result yesterday as a “wake-up call” for its board and management.
Of the service’s 1700 staff, 415 — or 24 per cent — responded to the People Matter Survey and 60 per cent said they had witnessed bullying in the past 12 months.
Also, 40 per cent said they had experienced bullying at work.
Chief executive Stuart Spring said such feedback “always hurts”.
“Basically what they’ve done is given us a big serve,” Dr Spring said.
“They’re saying that we don’t communicate well, we don’t involve them in decisions adequately when there’s change, that we don’t work it through enough with them so they can be happy.
“They don’t feel empowered.”
Albury Wodonga Health has held a meeting with its top 40 managers since receiving the results two weeks ago and the managers distributed the results among staff yesterday.
A board working party has been set up to oversee the service’s response, with an action plan in place and being distributed to staff.
“One of the things we’re looking to do is to run a program of focus groups which hopefully will contact every staff member,” Dr Spring said.
“That’s so we can actually work out their concerns today and then work on solutions together.”
The survey was done in February and March by the State Services Authority.
All government entities have to be surveyed at least once every two years.
Dr Spring said the result was not entirely unexpected.
“I’m not saying this is the reason, but it was a pretty black period for us at the start of this year,” he said.
“We were closing beds and there was the voluntary redundancy program and the $2.5 million funding cut — we were the meat in the sandwich between governments.”
Staff are being told the report shows “a very high degree of confidence that staff are striving to achieve patient satisfaction”.
Another survey will be held in May, though Dr Spring expects a change in workplace culture would take years to achieve.
He said the board was committed to tackling the issue and monitoring management’s actions.
“Not all the staff, of course, are clinical staff, but if morale’s down and people are feeling negative then at some point it can track through to poor patient care.”
