Failure to help nurses `a disgrace'
13.03.2008
THE Queensland Government has ordered a statewide audit of security for nurses accommodation following the rape of a nurse on Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait, and condemned its health department for failing to act on an internal risk assessment into employee housing that was completed more than a year ago.
Two days after The Australian revealed the case of the 27-year-old nurse and the damning contents of the internal report, Health Minister Stephen Robinson yesterday described the health department's failure to act on the departmental review of health facilities on Torres Strait islands as ``unacceptable'' and ``disgraceful''.
In Parliament yesterday, Mr Robinson tabled the 16-month-old internal report, which found virtually all health services almost unliveable, with the risk to the occupier described as ``very high'' or ``extreme''.
Mr Robinson said the report had sat on a bureaucrat's desk and was not acted on, which was ``unacceptable''.
The report found the facility on Mabuiag Island had no running water, intermittent power, no water to flush toilets, no locks on doors or windows, no screens and a broken security system.
Yet the 27-year-old nurse from Sydney was sent there to work on her own, and after she was sexually assaulted at 3am on February 5, was told by her director of nursing on Thursday Island that she should ``put it behind'' her and get back to work.
Queensland Health offered no assistance or even a medical examination to the rape victim, and her partner had to pay $800 to charter a plane to get her back to Thursday Island.
Mr Robinson told parliament yesterday he had ordered a statewide audit of all health facilities and accommodation.
``I say to my organisation today -- learn from this,'' he said. ``This is clearly unacceptable. There is an obligation upon managers to look after their workers.
``Clearly, the contents of this report show that the matter was not being attended to in a satisfactory manner.
``That is why I have today directed my director-general to undertake a statewide review so that we get to the bottom of this issue.''
Mr Robinson gave an assurance that the many defects in health centre facilities were being addressed, but a check by the Nurses Union revealed that this was not the case.
Instead, officers from QBuild, which manages publicly owned properties, are asking nurses to resubmit lists of faults, or sending officers to check premises they know are abysmal.
``For crying out loud, Queensland Health did an assessment in 2006 and those issues are still relevant,'' union secretary Gay Hawksworth said yesterday. ``The repair people can start working on that list -- it is not rocket science. At least three crews, each containing a carpenter, electrician, plumber and locksmith, should be dispatched immediately to the Torres Strait to do a blitz of all the sites.
``Our members also want at least two nurses on site at all times at each island facility. This is sound practice in terms of both occupational health and safety and clinical care.''
The remote area nurses have given the Queensland Government until March 28 to bring all their working and living facilities up to an acceptable standard or they will refuse to stay on the islands.
Instead, they will provide a medical service only on a fly-in/fly-out clinic basis.
Ms Hawksworth said the Torres Strait nurses would meet again by teleconference on Tuesday.
