NEWS-HR

A s.225 (Enterprise agreement) application by CM52 Pty Ltd, as Trustee for Corbett Family Trust T/A Corbett Neurology Services to terminate its Snore Australia and CM52 Pty Ltd Administration Staff Enterprise Agreement 2009 has been accepted by Vice President Catanzariti in Sydney on 15 September 2017.

A West Australian coroner has recommended restricting the prescription and use of fentanyl patches after a 54-year-old woman overdosed in hospital from the pain treatment. Marjorie Joy Jarick was given various opioids to treat chronic post-operative pain at Rockingham Kwinana District Hospital in July 2013, but nursing staff didn’t realise she’d been given too much until it was too late. Her doctor over-estimated her level of opioid tolerance, based on calculations of what she’d been exposed to before surgery, Coroner Sarah Linton said in findings released late on Thursday. Medical experts told Ms Jarick’s inquest earlier this year that fentanyl patches were overused for chronic pain treatment in Australia.

Nurses are threatening industrial action at four major rural hospitals which would prevent some patients being admitted. The threatened action at Whyalla, Port August, Port Pirie and Mt Gambier Hospitals follows union claims of staff shortages which compromise patient care and force nurses to work beyond contracted hours. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation says unless Country Health SA is prepared to offer an acceptable staffing solution, members at the sites will launch industrial action.

Re-Engage Youth Services Incorporated is set to defend a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) before Deputy President Anderson in his Adelaide (Patterson) chambers.

Man who groped woman in retirement village jailed for a year Judge Patrick Treston described Calon Mackie Edwards’ offending as “disturbing reading” when sentencing him in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday. Edwards, 45, had earlier pleaded guilty to assault, indecent assault, burglary and doing an indecent act with intent to offend.

Pauline Allen says she feared for her safety during a harrowing and “hostile” ordeal at an Adelaide emergency department this week. Mrs Allen described the atmosphere inside the overflowing Lyell McEwin Hospital on Monday night as “volatile” and “on the verge of violence”.

The man who lured, raped and murdered outback nurse Gayle Woodford has told an Adelaide court he should have received a greater reduction to his sentence because of his early guilty pleas. Ms Woodford’s body was found in a shallow grave near the remote community of Fregon in South Australia’s APY Lands in March last year. The Supreme Court heard she had been lured from her bed, likely responding to a call for help, and was quickly overpowered. Her killer, 35-year-old Dudley Davey, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 32 years.

An application by Health Services Union (s.437 – Application for a protected action ballot order) will be determined by Commissioner Harper Greenwell in his Melbourne chambers at 1pm.