Bidgerdii Community Health Service has been served with a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) by ex-staff member Vandenbrink in Newcastle.
May 19, 2017
A powerful parliamentary committee investigating the chemotherapy dosing scandal at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital will deliver a damning report, saying it cannot discount the possibility there was a cover-up.
May 19, 2017
A s.185 (Enterprise agreement) application from Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation for its Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch) Employees Agreement 2017 has been ratified by Fair Work Commissioner Johns in Melbourne on 17 May 2017.
May 19, 2017
Security guards may be placed at a troubled South Australian government-run nursing home as Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos reacts to calls from the opposition. Ms Vlahos revealed on Wednesday there had been a fresh allegation of abuse this week at the home in Oakden, which was already set to close after a damning report on its quality of care. She says she will speak with the site’s clinical leader about whether it would be appropriate to have security guards at the home, while another facility is being prepared for the patients.
May 18, 2017
National RSL president Robert Dick has sent a blistering email to his NSW counterpart, John Haines, demanding he and the rest of the state council stand down immediately or face fresh charges of bringing the league into disrepute. Mr Haines and the remaining members of the state council – some have already resigned – have previously promised to stand aside pending investigations into the financial scandals that have dogged the NSW branch for eight months. The state branch said in a March statement that during an inquiry into possible credit card abuse and unexplained “consulting fees” paid to some councillors, the council had “stood aside and delegated its oversight authority of RSL NSW to a Caretaker Management Committee”. But correspondence makes it clear that Mr Haines and other councillors are still running the organisation. An email sent by councillor Bob Metcalfe to some RSL sub-branches warns that the national RSL is trying to take over NSW. “Be very careful what you support. We are your elected councillors and retain control even though we have stood down,” it states.
May 18, 2017
A new case of abuse at Adelaide’s state-run Oakden nursing home last week has been referred to police, leading to the suspension of another staff member at the condemned facility. Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos, who has resisted calls to resign since the scandal erupted a month ago, yesterday told parliament the new incident was reported to an Oakden clinical unit manager on Saturday. The latest suspension, related to alleged abuse witnessed by a family member of another patient on Tuesday last week, takes the total to 10 since a report into the aged-care facility was released last month. Another staffer has been sacked while one has resigned.
May 18, 2017
Sacked RSL NSW boss Glenn Kolomeitz is frustrated. After lifting the lid on the league’s financial scandals, including allegations of fraud and cover-ups within its leadership, the Illawarra army veteran’s recent termination means he won’t get to finish what he started. But that doesn’t mean he’s walking away from his mission to fix the finances and grow the organisation. “I didn’t realise the depth of the governance problems I’d have to start fixing,” Mr Kolomeitz said. “Having started to fix the governance issues and to fix the company’s structural issues, it’s disappointing that I won’t necessarily get to see that through. “I haven’t disappeared from the scene, so I certainly would look at any options to be able to contribute to those reforms in the future.” Mr Kolomeitz described this week’s NSW government announcement of a royal commission-style inquiry into the RSL’s fundraising activities as a “watershed moment” for the organisation.
May 18, 2017
A nurse who signed patients’ medication charts, falsely indicating she had administered drugs, and who took another nurse’s handbag, has been reprimanded for professional misconduct. Former agency nurse Karen Faulkner, who is employed by a Gold Coast hospital, will have to work with a mentor and under conditions for the next 12 months. Ms Faulkner prematurely signed patient medication charts in advance of medications being administered and in one case did not give a patient an antibiotic she needed, a tribunal found. A doctor had ordered a Brisbane Private Hospital patient be given the antibiotic, prior to her having a total hip replacement in 2012, to ward against infection. Ms Faulkner signed the medication chart indicating she had given the patient the antibiotic Vancomycin at 6am on July 17, 2012, when she had not.
