An application by Health Services Union (s.229 – Application for a bargaining order) will be determined by Commissioner Cribb in Melbourne.
July 18, 2016
An application for approval of the Balaklava Mill Court Homes Registered Nurse, Enrolled Nurse & Personal Care Assistant ANMF (Aged Care) Enterprise Agreement 2015 (s.185 – application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be determined by Commissioner Roe in his Melbourne chambers.
July 18, 2016
A nurse has been fined $25,000 for allowing an ex-prisoner she had treated stay at her home as a flatmate for nine months. The nurse, who has permanent name suppression, claimed an invitation to the former prisoner to stay at her home for a night as a guest, and thereafter as a flatmate, was an act of kindness and compassion. But the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal found the relationship to be inappropriate, as she had previously cared for the prisoner while she worked at a Corrections facility. In the decision, the nurse was censured and ordered to pay a fine of $5000, plus $20,000 towards the cost of the hearing. The tribunal noted it was within a “hair’s breadth” of suspending the nurse. It was also noted that the prisoner was a “vulnerable person” and there was a “significant power imbalance” between the nurse and the prisoner.
July 18, 2016
OCCUPATIONAL DISCIPLINE – Nurses – unsatisfactory professional performance – failure to comply with asserted unwritten organisational policy – no evidence as to existence or terms of unwritten policy – activity alleged to be outside scope of practice – context is relevant to scope of practice – failure to communicate to health care team information necessary for optimal nursing care – breach of National Competency Standards/Dianne Tai cautioned.
July 18, 2016
The firm about to take over Geelong’s leading pathology service has rejected union claims large-scale job losses are planned or that the city’s public and private patients will see their medical tests delayed. Australian Clinical Labs announced last month it was buying out St John of God Pathology, which runs Geelong’s major medical testing laboratory and 35 collection centres in the region. Those sites and 300 workers from the region will be transferred to ACL when the sale is finalised later this year, as will the contract to provide medical testing for public patients treated by Barwon Health. Despite assurances from SJGP that jobs would be protected in the sale, the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria told workers late last month it believed 200 jobs would be at risk within two years of the sale.
July 18, 2016
OCCUPATIONAL DISCIPLINE – Nurses – consent orders – unsatisfactory professional performance – failure to advise procedure outside scope of practice – failure to question appropriateness of procedure/Caitlyn Izzard cautioned.
July 15, 2016
Tasmanian paramedics are starting to scale back their industrial action after making a significant step forward in negotiations for a new pay deal. After months of protracted negotiations, the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) has claimed a breakthrough. The union’s Tim Jacobson said an offer of an 8 per cent pay rise over four years backdated to 2014 had been put on the table by Government negotiators. He believes it is more than the 5 per cent HACSU had previously been asking for. “The wages offer itself is superior, it backdates and pays increases that were owed to our members,” he said. Paramedics’ pay has been the subject of a long and bitter dispute, that resulted in workers writing anti-government messages on ambulances and refusing to do some overtime.
July 15, 2016
Aveo Group Limited has been summoned to answer a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) lodged by a disaffected Liousas.
