Complaints by two employees have led to calls for changes to Barwon Health’s grievance policy.
As reported by the Geelong Advertiser (19/10/13), the Public Service Standards Commissioner has written to Barwon Health to urge improvements to the policy.
Following two separate complaints by a senior Barwon Health nurse and a former anaesthetist, Dr Colson, the Commissioner has called for the policy to include timelines to ensure complaints are dealt with more quickly.
“Whilst some delay may be expected, a delay of two months in responding to a grievance is not acceptable,” the Commissioner writes.
In a letter to state Health Minister David Davis, Associate Professor Eugene Athan, Barwon Health’s Medical Staff Group chairman expresses “serious concern”, according to the Advertiser.
“[T]he executive had ‘repeatedly and unilaterally’ acted against advice from the senior medical staff and its representative group in relation to the handling of the Dr Colson affair.”