Serco Health boss Mark Irwin has pleaded for a more balanced and accurate public discussion of problems at Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH), saying workers are being abused in public.
Serco and the Western Australian Health Department have been severely criticised for a series of serious problems during the commissioning of the $2 billion hospital.
The outsourcing company has a multi-billion-dollar contract to provide non-clinical services at FSH, but was stripped of sterilisation earlier this year as a result of patient safety concerns.
Mr Irwin has told a parliamentary inquiry that the public criticism of Serco’s delivery of FSH non-clinical services has led to its staff being abused in public.
Serco staff were committed to providing high levels of safety at the hospital and did not deserve that kind of treatment, Mr Irwin said.
He told the committee he hoped the people that had created that situation would stop, but declined to name who was responsible for what he said was inaccurate criticism.
State Parliament’s Education and Health Standing Committee is examining the commissioning of FSH in addition to the financial implications of the Serco contract.
On Tuesday, former Health Department director-general Bryant Stokes said Serco should never have been given responsibility for sterilising medical equipment at FSH.
Professor Stokes told the inquiry that Serco did not have enough experience operating sterilisation services at other hospitals.
He said in hindsight, sterilisation should have been considered a clinical responsibility and therefore kept in-house.
The committee was told last week that the Health Department would not know until early next year whether the Serco contract had delivered savings to taxpayers.