NEWS-HR

A BULLDOGS fan who suffered a heart attack at Saturday’s MCG blockbuster may not have survived if not for his determination to see their Grand Final berth. The ground’s ready access to a defibrillator and the quick-thinking of an off-duty paramedic are being credited with saving 64-year-old Rob McCarthy’s life. The retirement village caretaker slumped in his seat without warning at 5.06pm, an off-duty paramedic sitting nearby finding Mr McCarthy had no pulse and dragging him into the aisle to perform CPR which continued for about fifteen minutes.

Three applications by Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd (s.318 – Application for an order relating to instruments covering new employer and transferring employees) will all be heard by fair work Commissioner Simpson in conference room A in Brisbane.

A Victorian family is calling for an inquiry into the aged care industry after their 89-year-old grandmother suffered second degree burns from a bowl of scalding water. Laurel James sat on her bed at the John Curtin nursing home in Ballarat when the bed bath filled with boiling water spilled over her, burning some of her skin off. Ms James’ daughter Glenda Hipwell has called for a higher level of training for staff at aged care homes, along with sanctions for facilities that don’t comply with regulations.

An application for approval of the Mayo Home Nursing Service and Hunter Nursing Nurses and Support Services Enterprise agreement (s.185 – Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be heard by Commissioner Saunders in his Sydney chambers today.

The Tasmanian Government’s move to enforce mandatory sentences for assaults on frontline workers like paramedics and child protection workers has been labelled by unions as “window dressing”. The Government will introduce legislation later this month which will set a minimum sentence of six months in jail for anyone found guilty of seriously assaulting a frontline worker. The laws already exist for assaults on police officers, but no one has been sentenced under them.

Public sector nurses and midwives have suspended industrial action following a new pay and conditions offer from the South Australian State Government that puts them on track to be among “the best paid in the nation”. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is seeking a 2.5 per cent pay increase per year over three years, extra incentives added to voluntary separation packages, paid overtime, extra professional development, new staffing structures and new classification structures. Nurses have been holding low key industrial action in pursuit of the claims including working to rule, after their previous enterprise bargaining agreement expired on September 1.

The daughter of an elderly woman murdered at a Newcastle aged care facility has called for better video surveillance in nursing homes. On Wednesday, 29-year-old Garry Steven Davis was found guilty of murdering residents Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, in 2013. Ms Fowler was injected with a large dose of insulin she did not need. Her eldest daughter Gail said she hoped the tragedy would lead to improved monitoring of elderly patients. “It’s a bit like the one where the [Quakers Hill] nursing home was burnt down,” she said. “I believe that they made sure that there should be smoke detectors in nursing homes and they gave them a certain amount of time to do that. So hopefully CCTV cameras will be installed because they should be in many more places.”

Victoria Legal Aid and the CPSU (the Community and Public Sector Union) are contesting s.576(2)(aa) (Promoting cooperative and productive workplace relations and preventing disputes)