August 22, 2024

The Royal Melbourne Hospital Shutters Ombuds Office

The prominent Australian public teaching hospital will close its Ombuds office at the end of August 2024. The program was established in January 2022 by Lisa Klug, who piloted an Ombuds role (designated "Independent Facilitator") in 2018-2022 for Safer Care Victoria, which also served The Royal Melbourne Hospital. These were the only examples of Organizational Ombuds programs in healthcare in Australia. Klug is resigning for other opportunities and the position will not be refilled. 

Here's the full announcement from the CEO of RMH: 
I wanted to let you all know that Lisa Klug, the RMH Ombuds, has advised me of her resignation. Lisa is embarking on a wonderful opportunity to move overseas. 
Lisa has been with the RMH for five years, initially leading the Safer Care Victoria trial at the RMH and the Royal Women’s Hospital, and more recently, as our very own independent Ombuds. This role has been a valuable resource at a time when we have been building on our speak up culture. With Lisa’s expertise, we have come a long way with many benefiting from her many education sessions to create psychological safety and manage conflict. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lisa for her hard work and commitment to our people, I know that the Royal Melbourne has really benefitted from your work. 
At the moment we have made the decision not to replace the role so the Ombuds office will be closed from 30 August. For Lisa’s remaining time with us, she will continue to be available. All confidential discussions with the Ombuds, and the identify of visitors who used the Ombuds services will remain strictly confidential. 
As always I encourage our people to continue to speak up and draw on the support of their leader, their colleagues, peer supports, our safety champions, and our people and culture team. By working together, putting our people first and leading with kindness, we will continue to provide excellent quality care community whilst supporting each other.
Related post: Independent Facilitators Serve as Organizational Ombuds for Safer Care Victoria

1 comment:

  1. “Just work with your supervisor.” The raw comments I’d like to post are too inappropriate for this forum. So I’ll just say the Board should take this decision as an indicator of the CEO’s short-sided incompetence.

    ReplyDelete