NEWS-HR

Bidgerdii Community Health Services is to defend a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) before Commissioner Saunders at Level 3, 237 Wharf Road, Newcastle at 9.30am (Van Den Brink).

Two months after being appointed the interim chief executive overlooking the New Royal Adelaide Hospital (NRAH), Len Richards has quit, despite the hospital’s opening being just weeks away. Len Richards became Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer in February after previous CEO Julia Squire was sacked.

The South Australian government is to close a state-run nursing home in Adelaide after an independent investigation revealed the poor treatment of residents. Eight staff at the Makk and McLeay nursing home at Oakden, a facility for dementia patients, have been stood down with 21 reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Three incidents at the home have also been reported to police. Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos says residents at the facility will be transferred to alternative mental health or aged-care facilities over the coming months.

Gold Coast University Hospital has had to place plastic covers over its surgical threatre lights after metal shards fell on a patient on an operating table. Staff say several safety complaints were made after it was discovered steel fell on a patient and a surgeon, and they believe some of the 16 theatres should be closed down.

Patients are being put at risk by a failing radio network used by ambulance crews across New South Wales, the Australian Paramedics Association (APA) has warned. The APA said the system was being undermined by signal blackspots which it said were rife across the state, and equipment was not being maintained.

More than 700 public patients and hundreds more in the private system have had their privacy breached after letters from their specialists to GPs were found dumped in a Sydney bin.

A former agency nurse who worked at the troubled Oakden nursing home 15 years ago said she was shocked to hear patients were still being mistreated at the facility. The South Australian Government announced it will be closing the Makk and McLeay wards at the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service following a report into the facility. Catherine Branscheid worked at Oakden in the McLeay ward for 12 months and said she witnessed some terrible treatment of patients during her time there.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT – misconduct – ss.394, 400, 604 Fair Work Act 2009 – permission to appeal – Full Bench – at first instance Commission found appellant fairly dismissed – appellant claimed error of fact – argued in public interest because the error of fact gave rise to result which was manifestly unjust and unsupported by evidence – Full Bench not satisfied appeal in public interest – found matter did not give rise to an issue of importance and or general application – permission to appeal refused. Appeal by Lehmann against decision and order of Hampton C on 8 February 2017 [[2017] FWC 478] Re: Mary Mackillop Aged Care SA