NEWS-HR

June 17, 2019

Bridget Kirkham of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), died in Sydney last week aged 65.

June 17, 2019

Australian Regional and Remote Community Services Limited has a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) to answer before Fair Work Commissioner Spencer in Chambers in Brisbane (Trevena).
June 14, 2019

United Protestant Association NSW Ltd is again having to deal with a s.604 (Appeal of decisions) before the Fair Work Full Bench in Melbourne (Grabovsky).

June 14, 2019

Ability Options will argue the merits of a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) at 3pm today in front of Deputy President Sams in Hearing Room 14-2 – Level 14 in Sydney (Ezeonu).

June 14, 2019

Homecare Assistance has a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) with which it must deal before Fair Work Commissioner Cambridge in Hearing Room 12-1 – Level 12 in Sydney (Hanna).

June 14, 2019

A retirement home resident has admitted to killing his frail, elderly neighbour whose body was found in a pool of blood at the Orelia complex they lived at earlier this year. Michael Andrew Dalton appeared at Stirling Garden’s Magistrate’s Court today where he pleaded guilty to murdering 82-year-old Allan Pedersen on February 6. His body was found by a neighbour when she went to collect him for an eye appointment. She had looked through the window and saw Mr Pedersen collapsed on the floor of the lounge. Friends had described the retired retired ship cook, who had lived at the home for several years, as a quiet, happy gentleman. During the hearing today, Dalton only spoke to confirm his name and to enter his guilty plea. His lawyer told the court her client had suffered from mental health issues in the past and would be requesting a psychological as well as a psychiatric report to be prepared ahead of sentencing. He is expected to be sentenced in September.

June 14, 2019

A doctor accused of sexually assaulting a vulnerable patient in Bunbury hospital’s emergency department told police he never touched her “private parts”. And surgical registrar Priyantha Dayananda said he could not understand how the 45-year-old patient later received “dirty” text messages from a phone registered in his name. Mr Dayananda is on trial in the District Court accused of digitally penetrating the woman during a medical examination in December 2017. Prosecutors say Dr Dayananda was conducting an abdominal examination on the woman, who was in pain from complications following surgery months before, when he moved his hand into her underwear and assaulted her. In a police interview shown to the jury today Dr Dayananda denied the alleged crime, saying he would “never, ever go beyond the pelvic area” during a stomach examination. Dr Dayananda said if there was a reason to examine a patient’s genital area he would do so with another medical professional in the room. “I can confidently say I never examined her private parts or her chest,” he told police. The doctor said he would “never do it, especially with people like this” because of a fear of catching a sexually transmitted infection. “I don’t want to touch their skin … if I catch anything my job is done,” he said. The alleged victim claims she began receiving text messages and phone calls from the doctor, and she saved the contact number in her phone as “Sleaziest slyest Doctor”. Prosecutors allege Dr Dayananda contacted the woman using a “secret” phone that he kept hidden from other people. During the interview, police revealed the woman had received several text messages, including one that said it was “your doctor from Bunbury, remember I touched your beautiful tummy at emergency?” Another text from the same number allegedly said: “love to kiss your tummy again”. Phone records showed the messages were sent from a phone registered in Dr Dayananda’s name from Griffith in NSW, where Dr Dayananda admitted he was staying for a work trip at the time. But Dr Dayananda said the phone had gone missing and “that is not my normal writing, I don’t write this type of sexual messages, not even (for) my wife”. “I can confidently say I don’t like these types of messages,” he said. “I don’t write these types of dirty messages to anyone. I haven’t done that.” In the interview, the doctor said he could not explain how the messages were being sent or how the woman’s number ended up in the phone. “I can’t understand how this is happening,” he said. Asked if the woman had “made any advances” towards him he said she had not, but said even if she had, she was “not my type”. He also denied ever having an affair. The court was earlier told the woman had previously been an in-patient at Bunbury hospital before the alleged attack, after needing emergency surgery on her stomach following a violent domestic incident. And it was there the jury was told she had first met Dr Dayananda, who was one of her treating physicians. The woman testified he had paid “special attention” to her during that two-week stay, visiting her on his own almost daily, asking her out, offering to show her WA and also stroking her hair. The woman said she remembered him as the “sleazy one”. After being discharged in October she had to return to the hospital in December after her surgical wound became infected. The trial continues.

June 14, 2019

A medical practitioner who was suspended after making a series of “inflammatory, misogynistic and racist” online posts while working at the Royal Hobart Hospital has had his suspension extended pending further investigation. The Medical Board of Australia issued a press release this morning announcing it had suspended the registration of Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee, effective from yesterday. “The Board has taken this action in the public interest to maintain confidence in the medical profession,” the release said. Dr Lee, 31, was taken to the Tasmanian Health Practitioners Tribunal by the Medical Board and was found guilty of professional misconduct at a hearing in Hobart earlier this year. Tribunal chairman Robert Webster said Dr Lee made inappropriate statements on internet forums and chat sites in December 2016 while he was working as an emergency medicine registrar at the Royal. He was employed at the hospital from February 2016 to February 2018 and also worked some of that time at the Launceston General Hospital. He is now based in Victoria. On Singaporean online forum Hardware Zone, Dr Lee posted a series of remarks in the context of a situation in Singapore/Malaysia where a local female college student had made disparaging remarks about servicemen. His posts included: — “This kind will never learn. She needs to be abandoned in India and repeatedly raped in order for her to wake up her idea.” — “Some women deserve to be raped, and that supercilious little bitch fits the bill in every way.” — “I will not conform to your ridiculous moral standards and your expectations of what a doctor should or should not say.” — “I am a medical practitioner. I also have a foul mouth and call a spade a spade.” Chairman Webster said Dr Lee had understood his posts could be seen as “inflammatory, misogynistic or racist in tone.” Dr Lee was suspended for six weeks and ordered to complete a program on ethical behaviour and communications, particularly in the use of social media. Dr Lee’s suspension was due to end on Tuesday, but it will now be ongoing while the Medical Board conducts an investigation. “The Board will not be making any further comment in relation to Dr Lee at this time,” the release said. The Medical Board does not have the legal power to deregister a practitioner — only an independent tribunal can cancel a practitioner’s registration.