Court dismisses case from Canberra Hospital doctor who complained about treatment

A doctor at the Canberra Hospital who tried to sue the ACT Government over allegations of poor treatment by the health service has had her case dismissed.

Dr Bronwyn Avard became clinical director for the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) in 2015 before lodging documents in the Federal Court of Australia in 2022 naming the ACT and two hospital executives as respondents, claiming the Fair Work Act 2009 had been breached.

But on 28 June 2024, the court ordered her originating application be dismissed and told the lawyers to file written submissions on costs if they wished.

Judge Geoffrey Kennett said Dr Avard had lodged four incident reports with the Canberra Health Service (CHS) in late 2021. Senior CHS officers then made decisions about her, resulting in her being prevented from returning from leave. She was transferred to a non-ICU role at another hospital.

In her four incident reports, she claimed she received psychological injuries in four alleged incidents at the hospital in October 2021. Two incidents were said to involve patients who died; one involved an amputation, and the last involved an upset employee.

“I feel I have been betrayed by those most senior in this organisation and that I am being victimised,” she said about the last alleged incident.

As a result of her reports, hospital executives became concerned for her welfare. They told her to go for a medical examination and not to return to work until a report had been provided.

That December, a doctor said she had no psychiatric condition or work-related injury and thought “the current situation arose due to Dr Avard impulsively putting in several incident reports at a time when she was feeling frustrated over other work-related matters”.

Then, in January 2022, a hospital executive sent a letter to Dr Avard alleging she “abandoned a patient during the terminal phase of her care” in October 2021, starting a misconduct investigation.

An executive decided she would not be suspended but would remain on long service leave.

In June 2022, Dr Avard’s lawyers wrote to CHS alleging the executives’ treatment of their client was unlawful and amounted to bullying and victimisation.

The following month, she was told the misconduct investigation had not found evidence to support the allegations and the matter had been closed.

However, other allegations had also been raised against her within CHS.

In June 2022, a hospital executive said it was alleged she had “repeatedly” been unreasonable to staff when medical director of the ICU, creating an unsafe environment for employees and patients.

Also, she allegedly “undermined” the relationship between the ICU and other units and her four incident reports were judged to be “improper and inaccurate”.

An independent investigation started into these allegations.

In July 2022, Dr Avard went to the Federal Court with her complaints, which included initially being stood down, the two investigations being refused when she asked to return from leave to work, as well as an investigation that started into her four incident reports.

One year later, the investigation into the latter allegations found there was “insufficient evidence to conclude on the balance of probabilities” that Dr Avard acted in the manner alleged.

“It is noted the investigation was made problematic due to witnesses not willing to participate in the process,” it reported.

In Judge Kennett’s decision, he found the hospital executives had mostly not taken adverse actions against her. When they had, their actions had not been motivated by her exercising a workplace right.

The judge said her application must be dismissed.

In July 2023, after resigning as clinical director, Dr Avard was allowed to return to her role as a senior specialist in the ICU.