A doctor at Ballarat Hospital has come forward with allegations he was a victim of bullying, the latest claim to be made about an entrenched culture of harassment in Victoria’s health system.
Victoria’s Health Minister has commissioned a consultant to review Ballarat Health Service’s workplace culture, in the wake of the bullying complaints from staff and health unions.
Leong Fook Ng, who was recruited from the UK to head up the oncology unit at Ballarat Hospital in 2003, said he was a victim of an aggressive campaign at the hospital that caused lasting damage to his career.
Junior doctors who had been sent to Ballarat on placement from Melbourne have also complained that the experience was difficult, with some saying they considered suicide.
Dr Ng said that within 18 months of starting at Ballarat, he had become a target and was under pressure to resign.
“The type of bullying was daily verbal abuse, in front of the whole team, during ward rounds,” he said.
At the time, Dr Ng was under peer review from the Royal College of Australasian Physicians (RCAP).
He said the harassment and intimidation he experienced in Ballarat compromised that process.
“The culture became toxic, I feared the bullies, because I was in a vulnerable position,” he said.
“Vulnerable because I was under peer review, vulnerable because I was on a non-immigrant visa, vulnerable probably because I have a family.”
Dr Ng failed his peer review in Ballarat, based primarily on the fact that he had demonstrated “poor relationships with colleagues”.
“I kept to myself, and went into my shell, and because of that, because I kept silent, instead of fighting back, I was labelled as unable to communicate,” he said.
He went on to gain recognition as a specialist after completing his peer review in Adelaide, but he said that the experience in Ballarat stuck with him.
The RCAP initially placed caveats on his registration, stating he had “significant problems” with his interpersonal skills.
The caveats were later removed, but Dr Ng said the damage to his reputation was permanent.
“My career in Australia as an oncologist was finished by this incident,” he said.
Dr Ng said he first became a target after he pulled a colleague up for bullying a junior doctor.
Culture of bullying ‘passed from one generation to the next’
The ABC has since been in contact with several junior doctors from Melbourne who have complained about experiences of bullying while on placement in Ballarat in the past 12 months.
One doctor, who was too fearful of repercussions to her career to be interviewed, claimed her placement experience drove her to attempt suicide.
She revealed her experience through Twitter messages and emails:
“It is soul-destroying, I went there as the most passionate, enthusiastic doctor and was bullied relentlessly day in and out for three months and it broke me.
“Everyone is so miserable. All we do it work ridiculously unsafe hours, eat takeaway, cry and then sleep.”
Karen Scott, who researches teaching methods within the medical profession for the University of Sydney, said there was a trans-generational legacy of behaviour in the health industry, with the older generations passing down a way of behaving to the next.
“So our workshops are trying to help people identify their values and maintain those values throughout their career,” she said.
Ballarat Health Services’ new acting chief executive, Andrew Kinnersly, said he was pushing for a culture shift at the hospital.
“All staff, junior staff in particular, that have issues of concern, will absolutely be encouraged to report and to work through the support structures that we hope to have in place more than we have, so that people can raise those concerns,” Mr Kinnersly said.
Dr Ng is now seeking public vindication, and wants an apology from both Ballarat Health Services and the RCAP over his treatment in Ballarat.
“I would like public vindication, rather than anything else, to restore my dignity as a medical oncologist in the public domain,” he said.
The ABC contacted the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, but no-one was available for an interview.