Dr Steven Adair would lie awake some nights wondering what he had taken on by returning to the director role at Canberra Hospital’s O&G unit.

The senior staff specialist had been part of the department on and off for 20 years. He knew it could be great.

But when he was asked to lead it again in mid-2023, it was at its lowest ebb.

Newspaper headlines said the “fractious and toxic” unit was failing its registrars and could lose its training accreditation.