The below article highlights an issue which has long been known to exist in the health sector. Bullying and harassment of staff exists in numbers much higher in this sector than an identified average for other workplaces in different sectors. One example goes back to 2018 when Westmead Hospital, had its training accreditation stripped after allegations of bullying by senior medical staff placed patient safety at risk. The Fair Work Commission case, Ms Anne Pilbrow [2020] FWC 2458 from 2020, raised the issue of HR departments needing to be proactive in ensuring employees were not exposed to unreasonable behaviour which posed a risk to their mental health. This is a heavy burden which sits on the HR departments and personally on the staff in those departments. Transparent processes operated by external practitioners may help meet the proactive requirement and go some way towards addressing what appears to be a serious cultural problem in our hospitals.
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