IT leader Nina Du Thaler is wrapping up her duties as chief information officer at Queensland Urban Utilities this week, after accepting a new role heading up technology at Uniting Care QLD.
August 30, 2016
A woman with brain injuries was taken to Dunedin Hospital three days after being assaulted inside a Dunedin care facility. A distraught daughter says her mother’s face was “pummeled” by a fellow resident of a Dunedin care facility. “She was meant to be safe,” Emma Shepherd said of her 55-year-old mother. Pictures of her mother show large bruises around her eyes and mouth, with “some bruises still coming out five days after the assault”. On Wednesday, her mother was bashed at a Pact residential facility where she had lived for the last seven weeks. Shepherd said a 25-year-old woman assaulted her mother for warning her not to steal another flatmate’s vodka. “This chick just pummelled her face in.” Christchurch-based Shepherd, who is her mother’s only New Zealand next-of-kin and her welfare guardian, did not learn of the incident until she visited her on Saturday. Shocked at her mother’s condition, she complained to management who took her mother to Dunedin Hospital. Shepherd said her mother suffered a brain injury in 2013, and survived a long-term abusive relationship resulting in her former partner being jailed. Because of the brain injury, she has been deemed to be incapable of living alone. “I trusted these people to make sure she is safe, because she is more vulnerable than she has ever been,” Shepherd said. “[Pact] haven’t dealt with this the right way, they have tried to cover it up.” Asked why her daughter was not informed of the assault, Pact chief executive Louise Carr said it was “a reasonable expectation for families to be kept informed and it’s our intention to do so, subject to clients’ wishes”. “Many of our clients are quite capable of making their own decisions regarding such issues and we respect their wishes.” She confirmed the incident was being reviewed, “and, where necessary, measures put in place to prevent them occurring again”. “As part of the incident reporting process, we will assess whether the level of support was appropriate in this instance.” Although she could not discuss specific details due to privacy concerns, “we can say that if a client is ever hurt we offer to take them for medical treatment”. “It is up to the client whether he or she wishes to accept this offer.” Police are investigating the incident. Shepherd was concerned her mother, who was an alcoholic, was also allowed to buy alcohol and not encouraged to eat decent food. She paid $125 a week to stay at the St Kilda facility, with just $100 left over for groceries. “She has been drinking three casks of wine a week, so out of $100 you tell me what she is eating,” Shepherd said. “All she lives on is mushroom and cheese scones and canned food. “I am disgusted, and there is nothing I can do.” Carr said the flats were the clients’ homes and “alcohol is not prohibited, as long as it is used moderately and does not create disturbances to the service, clients or the wider community”. Alcohol consumption had to be discussed with staff, and Pact encouraged “a healthy attitude toward alcohol consumption, as part of the health and living skills we support people with”. Shepherd said her mother was not being supported in her new home, as “she just stays in bed drinking and smoking cigarettes all day, that’s all she does”. “It sounds bad but I’ve spent my whole life being the parent, it is time for me to put my life together but I’m having to deal with this because the people that are meant to be helping me aren’t doing their jobs.”
August 29, 2016
Employees of Lyndoch Living “feel as though they’ve had their wages sold up the Hopkins River”, the Health Workers Union says. Assistant secretary David Eden said employees in Warrnambool were being paid the lowest aged-care award wages in Australia and well below industry standards. He did not disclose the specifics of a proposed wage increase. He said more than half the staff were union members. “They (members) don’t take this action lightly,” he said. “They’re very very frustrated… they’re not happy.” A text message and letter sent to workers last week urged them to vote yes to protected industrial action, calling for pay to “catch up to industry standards”. Lyndoch Living chief executive Doreen Power said she would be unable to comment until the ballot results were returned. The ballot process would not be completed until September.
August 29, 2016
Chair of the Central Coast Local Health District Board, Paul Tonkin, has announced the appointment of Dr Andrew Montague as the new chief executive for the district following the resignation of Matt Hanrahan.
August 29, 2016
Brian McLean, who at the time worked for McLeay Valley House, a Thompson Health Care Residential Aged Care Facility in Frederickton, NSW, said he could not explain why he removed Risperidone from one patient’s Webster pack and gave it to other patients. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard that McLean took the antipsychotic medicine from the Webster Pack of Patient A and gave one tablet to each of Patients B, C and D on 23 October 2014. Patients C and D were charted for the drug “as needed” but Patient B was not charted for it at all. When cross-examined, McLean said that there was no occasion for Patient B to be administered Risperidone. He did not record that he had taken the tablets or given them to Patients B, C or D and said he had no recollection as to whether he had done it or not. On 24 October, he took three more Risperidone tablets from Patient A’s Webster pack – which had been supplied and correctly labelled by a pharmacist – and put them into Patient B’s medication pouch. He also inappropriately pre-prepared, on 11 occasions, medication pouches for administration to residents not in accordance with MVH Guidelines, the court heard. When asked directly why he took the drugs from Patient A, McLean said he could not explain, that “they were there”, and asked the cross-examiner “what you want me to say?” The tribunal noted that on 24 October “he was not acting in accordance with MVH protocols, made no assessment of the patient, did not administer the medication from the appropriate container, did not check the relevant medication charts and took it upon himself to dispense medication against policy and good clinical and medical practice.” “When asked why he acted in this way, and whether it was easier to have less disruptive patients, the respondent said that there were some residents with an ability to reason, but others did not.” When asked whether he had inappropriately given medicines on previous occasions over a six and a half month period, McLean said that he was not denying it. He said that between April 2014 and 24 October 2014, it was his usual practice to make such decisions about administering Risperidone and gave Patient A’s medications to each of Patients B, C and D on a number of occasions. He agreed that he did not seek advice or guidance from a medical officer in relation to the administration of the drugs as alleged, saying he “should have but didn’t”. McLean said in a letter that it “was never my intention to cause harm to any resident, only to ensure safety to my colleagues. I know that what I did was wrong + unprofessional + I sincerely regret my conduct.” He was asked why he administered Risperidone without authority and replied: “I was concerned for the safety of my colleagues. A few of the residents could be quite aggressive when being attended.” After colleagues noticed that medicines packs had been tampered with, they confronted McLean in the medication room and he admitted that Patient A’s Risperidone tablets were in Patient B’s medication pack. McLean was dismissed from his place of employment on 24 October 2014 and a letter to him dated that day from his employer read in part: “Your actions in dispensing and administering the Risperidone medication without appropriate documentation, clinical indication or in [Patient B’s] case, without a prescription was unlawful and totally incomprehensible. “You have unnecessarily jeopardised the health and safety of residents in your care.” The tribunal ruled that McLean was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct, and he was publicly reprimanded. While McLean did not renew his registration, the tribunal said that it would have cancelled his registration were it still current. He may not apply for a review of this decision for a minimum period of two years.
August 29, 2016
An application for approval of the St John Ambulance Australia (NT) Inc Ambulance Agreement 2013-2016 (s.185 – Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be determined by Commissioner Lee in his chambers in Melbourne.
August 29, 2016
ENTERPRISE BARGAINING – protected action ballot – s.437 Fair Work Act – application for protection action ballot – respondent not convinced questions asked in ballot met definition of industrial action – Commission not convinced action specified in number of parts met definition taking into account most recent authorities – applicant filed amended application – following receipt of amended application respondent advised it was not convinced parts 1, 2, 3 and 11 met definition – Commission satisfied parts 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 15 constitute industrial action for similar reasons as those expressed in ANMF v Nillumbik Shire Council – Commission satisfied parts 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 16 industrial action – Commission had to determine whether parts 1, 2, 3 and 11 fell within definition of industrial action – Commission satisfied part 1 may be subject to ballot but held it was responsibility of those engaging in industrial action arising from ballot to ensure action was properly taken to maintain protected status – Commission satisfied in relation to Parts 2 and 3 that normal course of work of employees involved email communication and by adding additional wording they were performing work ‘in a manner different from that in which it is customarily performed’ – ban on sending emails that did not contain the specified statement was ‘a ban, limitation or restriction on the performance of work by an employee’ – Commission found in relation to part 11 that industrial action involved a stoppage of work with a specified purpose and was satisfied it may form part of question asked in ballot – held observation in ASU v Lend Lease should be borne in mind by those taking industrial action arising from ballot should it succeed – held application made pursuant to the Act – satisfied applicant genuinely trying to reach agreement – held requirements met and order to be made. Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union v Launch Housing
August 23, 2016
BizHealth Consultants Pty Ltd is defending a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute in relation to flexible working arrangements) lodged by Freedom4life.
