Almost every hour a health worker is bitten, spat at, punched, abused or threatened while trying to care for patients in Victorian hospitals. Public hospitals and the ambulance service have made the number of these reports public for the first time, providing the clearest picture yet of the threat faced by doctors, nurses and other workers. There were 8627 reports of occupational violence in hospitals in the year to July, and of those 1166 cases resulted in staff injury or illness, an analysis of health services’ annual reports reveals.
November 2, 2016
Thousands of unpaid carers on the Gold Coast are struggling with social isolation and financial strain, coupled with emotional and physical exhaustion as they put the health of those they care for before their own. This is the warning of Carers Australia, which says one in eight people are carers, bringing the number of Gold Coast carers to about 62,500, according to the Care for Carers report, commissioned by Amcal in partnership with Carers Australia.
November 2, 2016
Crown Prosecutor Brendan Campbell has outright accused former nurse Megan Haines of administering fatal insulin overdoses to two aged care centre residents in Ballina. The double-murder trial’s evidence has come to an end after more than a fortnight at Sydney Supreme Court, with jurors told to expect the prosecution and defence’s final remarks today.
October 31, 2016
Southern Cross Care WA (Inc) has ousted a staffer (Ahmed) and now faces a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) before Fair Work Deputy President Binet in the Fair Work Commission 111 St Georges Terrace Perth.
October 31, 2016
National Union of Workers and Clifford Hallam Healthcare are engaged in a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Fair Work Commissioner Hunt in Hearing Room 3 in Brisbane.
October 31, 2016
An application for approval of the St John of God Health Care Maintenance Caregivers Agreement 2016 (s.185 – Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be heard by Fair Work Commissioner Roe in his Melbourne Chambers this afternoon.
October 31, 2016
A woman has been charged with deception and theft after credit cards were stolen from nursing home residents in Melbourne. Police were alerted to the thefts when a 90-year-old Boronia resident noticed several purchases on his statement that he hadn’t made. The 36-year-old woman, from The Basin, was bailed to appear at the Ringwood Magistrates Court on April 28.
October 31, 2016
Labor’s newest recruit, Senator Kimberley Kitching, helped piece together shredded documents on the floor of the Health Services Union (HSU), in an attempt to see a factional enemy brought to justice, according to one of her parliamentary Labor colleagues. Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby said Ms Kitching should be commended for helping clean up the trouble-plagued union, by leading hospital workers to search for incriminating evidence against former HSU secretary Kathy Jackson. “They arrived at the union in their South Melbourne headquarters, found these bags full of rubbish and reconstituted — like in the movie Argo — all of the shredded material, which the trade union royal commission didn’t want to originally receive,” Mr Danby said. “It was all the material on Kathy Jackson’s [alleged] malfeasance [and] the corruption of the union.” Ms Jackson is now facing dozens of charges of theft and deception over her time as head of the HSU.
