ACT Opposition Leader Kate Carnell called yesterday for an urgent review of all seven government-run health centres following defects found in procedures at the Melba centre by an independent audit. She said the audit had revealed lack of security over cash; no monitoring of assets; missing assets; drugs not secured in accordance with the Dangerous Drugs Act; purchase irregularities; flextime and leave irregularities. The Government had had the report by Coopers and Lybrand for nearly a month and had not made it public. “”Concerns about practices at Melba Health Centre have been expressed by former staff members for more than a year,” she said.
“”The Government has ignored these concerns and has allowed some fairly dubious practices to continue unchecked.” There was a need for a review across the system, she said. The Minister for Health, Terry Connolly, said the Government took allegations by employees of malpractice seriously and that was why it had commissioned the independent audit. It would deal with the specific findings about Melba and any systemic faults found by the audit would be looked at across all the health centres. All centres were subject to regular departmental review and review by the Auditor-General.