A registered nurse who was sacked for selling vaccines belonging to her employer, administering them to paying customers and pocketing the payments, has been banned for two years. In a hearing before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Tracey Anne Margaret Everett admitted to professional misconduct and was banned from applying for nursing registration for two years. While employed by the Travel Clinic, Ms Everett attended various workplaces in mid-2011 primarily to offer flu vaccines but also offered additional vaccines such as Gardasil, Boostrix, Adacel and Hepatitis A and B vaccines to employees. During her onsite visits, she requested payment for the additional vaccines be made either in cash or by direct deposit into a bank account. QCAT heard Ms Everett received payments totalling $8844.30 and was dismissed by the company, which claimed she had “stolen vaccinations and misappropriated payments” belonging to it. Police executed a search warrant at her home where they found a cash receipt book showing receipts that had been issued to Travel Clinic clients where the money was never received by the company. While Ms Everett was not formally charged with an offence at the time, she repaid the money to the company without any admission of wrongdoing. Throughout a lengthy investigation by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency into her conduct, Ms Everett maintained her denial, only admitting to the allegations in the referral in a filing dated May 12, 2017. In her ruling, QCAT acting president Suzanne Sheridan said her actions were “… an intricate and sophisticated scheme involving the customers and patients of the practice”. “… The [Nursing and Midwifery] board referred to the maintenance of her complete denial until just prior to the commencement of the trial,” Justice Sheridan said. “The board says there is very little evidence before the tribunal which is indicative of any remorse and insight into the offending conduct. “… Further, the board says the reimbursement of [money] to her employer cannot be treated as evidence of remorse in circumstances where Ms Everett continued to maintain her denial up until shortly before the matter was due to come on for hearing.” The tribunal ordered Ms Everett’s registration be cancelled from November 26, 2018, and remain disqualified from applying from registration for two years. Ms Everett was also ordered to pay costs given that her conduct in the proceedings had “undoubtedly complicated and protracted the litigation and significantly increased the cost of the litigation”, Justice Sheridan said.
