WA Health Misconduct Handling Procedures - Corruption and Crime ...

identified misconduct, which it categorised as “professional conduct”. Onemanager commented that:… we need to think about where such conduct-relatedinformation and reports could be gathered, as information isgathered all the time …2.2.7 “Managing as Best you Can”[72] As an overall proposition, interviews of managers across PMH revealedthat they managed misconduct “as best they could”, i.e., they knew little, ifanything, about misconduct or how to manage it. Therefore, when theyencountered misconduct they did the best they could to deal with it,among other competing priorities and without support from a system.Perhaps predictably in the circumstances – and significantly – they did notconsider managing misconduct as being part of their core businessresponsibilities.… health culture is very different from the rest of the publicsector – [we’re] so focused on “making people better” thatpeople can forget about systems, codes etc. …… the cultural view of misconduct management is that it is extrawork … staff are busy, under-resourced and are trying to do theright thing …[73] There was uncertainty about what misconduct or misconduct risks lookedlike in the context of the services delivered at the hospital, or in thebusiness activities associated with this service delivery. A significantnumber of managers and directors stated that misconduct had not been amanagement issue for them and that “never having to deal withmisconduct” in their work area was to some extent a matter of “luck”. Theyoften acknowledged, however, that they and their staff might not knowwhat constituted misconduct.2.2.8 PMH Workplace Culture[74] The PMH staff interviewed generally held the view that as professionals,they and their colleagues were ethical. In their view, therefore,misconduct was unlikely to occur. This was particularly so for clinical staff,where:… professions have codes of ethics and conduct, and minimumstandards already built in …[75] Similarly, it appeared there was a reticence by staff to turn their minds tothe possibility of a colleague acting inappropriately with a child. Onemanager commented that hospital staff were generally “unsuspecting” ofcolleagues, that they did not want to think inappropriate conduct waspossible and that staff awareness for identifying a child abuser was as lowas for the rest of the community.19