Nurses at Dhulwa Mental Health Unit have aired concerns about the response to WorkSafe ACT improvement notices at the site amid calls to ensure immediate safety concerns are addressed.
The ACT government on Monday announced there would be an inquiry into the troubled mental health facility. Scores of nurses have been physically assaulted while working at Dhulwa.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation last month sounded the alarm publicly about conditions at Dhulwa and this prompted an inspection by the workplace safety watchdog.
An improvement and prohibition notice was issued to Dhulwa following the inspection. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT branch secretary Matthew Daniel said union members wanted to ensure they had their say in the improvement notices.
He said the work health and safety representatives at Dhulwa had not been engaged as part of the work on the WorkSafe notices when he had spoken to them on Friday.
"ANMF members are concerned about the response to the current prohibition notice. I'm hoping to have discussions shortly with Canberra Health Services in terms of their response," Mr Daniel said.
"We want to make sure that the health and safety representatives [and] our nurses at Dhulwa mental health facility have input into the solutions to the prohibition and improvement notice.
"That's the immediate work that needs to be done and certainly the inquiry will look at the medium to long-term issues around governance and culture and the legislation."
Mr Daniel welcomed the announcement of the inquiry from the government, which he had pushed for strongly over the past month.
"We've got there quick in the end, but certainly this has been a long time coming," he said.
"We've worked constructively with CHS over many years so it's not a new problem and we have been frustrated by the culture that hasn't seen the numbers of assaults as being a problem and that it seems to be almost business as usual."
It came after nurses had recorded more than 100 physical assaults in the six months to February, with many expressing fears about working at the Symonston facility.
One likened work at the unit as being "sent into the killing fields".
Mr Daniel said while there had not been any injuries from physical assaults over the past couple of weeks there were "near misses" occurring daily.
He said an external work health and safety expert should come and look at the measures that could be done immediately to address issues at the facility.
An independent inquiry will investigate and review legislative, clinical and governance policies at the facility, as part of a long-term solution at the site.
The government is in the process of confirming the terms of reference and format of the inquiry, in consultation with the union. Minister for Mental Health Emma Davidson would not put a timeline on the inquiry on Monday.
She said the government would work with WorkSafe ACT to address some immediate safety concerns for staff at the facility. She said health and safety representatives would be engaged in conversations.
"We'll be making sure that we're working with WorkSafe ACT to ensure that action is undertaken very quickly to make sure the workplace is safe and that we're engaging with staff," Ms Davidson said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley, who also pushed for an inquiry, said the government needed to demonstrate what was being done to address the immediate safety issues.
"My question to the minister is what is she doing for safety for our nurses at Dhulwa today," she said.
"Today nothing has changed for our nurses and we need to make sure that they no longer feel afraid going to work.
"We know that an inquiry could take 18 months, it could take two years so my concern is for nurses' safety today."
