Millions spent on health bureaucrats’ overseas conferences amid neglect of Oakden nursing home patients

SA HEALTH bureaucrats spent millions of taxpayer dollars on overseas conferences as elderly patients were left neglected and abused in the run-down Oakden mental health facility.

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SA HEALTH bureaucrats spent millions of taxpayer dollars on overseas conferences as elderly patients were left neglected and abused in the run-down Oakden mental health facility.

The revelation has stunned victims’ families, who have described the travel expenditure as “reprehensible”.

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, which operates Oakden Older Person’s Mental Health Service, spent more than $2.6 million on overseas travel in the past two financial years.

The reasons for travel, outlined in SA Health documents, included conferences, workshops and training seminars.

But SA Health was unable to specify who travelled and what was learnt on the 43 overseas trips to countries including the US, UK and India.

“We invest every year in our staff to provide them with opportunities to build their knowledge and skills and learn from other leading clinicians, to improve health care for people in the northern suburbs,” a SA Health spokesman said.

Travel expenses by health bureaucrats on overseas conferences in the past two financial years.

A review of the Oakden facility by Chief Psychiatrist Dr Aaron Groves, released last week, found the service had “seclusion, restraint and rough handling practices ... transported from mid to late 20th-century Glenside Hospital”.

Three incidents in the past eight months have now been referred to police.

The report was initiated after the family of Bob Spriggs, 66, who was over-medicated and had unexplained bruises while staying at the home in 2016, blew the whistle.

Dr Groves discovered a culture of cover-up among staff and details unhygienic and unsafe conditions, as well as excessive use of physical restraints, including jackets.

Stewart Johnston, whose mother Helen was subjected to abuse at the facility in 2008, described the travel expenditure as “reprehensible”.

“My instant reaction is ‘has no-one in Government ever heard of Skype?” Mr Johnston said.

“We all have to live within our means. We have a mental health crisis and we need to draw a line in the sand on expenses.”

The run-down Oakden mental health facility.

Mr Johnston said the two years’ worth of travel represented “just a fraction” of the money that could have been instead invested in facilities like Oakden.

“That is two million over two years. Over 10 years imagine the care these vulnerable people could have received from the cost in travel. It is reprehensible,” he said.

Senator Nick Xenophon said he was “not so much surprised as appalled’’ at the extent of overseas travel by the health network.

“Less money spent on overseas trips means more money is available for care of patients here,’’ he said.

Mr Xenophon wants such taxpayer-funded trips to be subject to the same requirements as those taken by politicians.

“When an MP takes a trip they have to provide a report online and the same should happen with these network trips,’’ he said.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said taxpayers would be surprised and concerned.

“At a time when SA health was failing to meet various accommodation standards and basic furnishings were not being maintained, the health network was able to find millions of dollars for overseas travel,” he said.

Dignity Party MLC Kelly Vincent and Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade at the Oakden nursing home. Picture: Tom Huntley

“I’m concerned about the scant details that are made public. This is public money and the public needs to be reassured it’s of value.”

His concerns were echoed by independent adviser Neil Baron, who undertook a review into the Oakden facility in 2008.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they are going on junkets,” Mr Baron said.

“All professionals attend conferences but ... was it an open cheque on travel?

Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos said it was “necessary for staff to attend conferences and training opportunities overseas so they can attain new skills and keep up-to-date with changes to medical practice’’.

New allegations of abuse were made public on Saturday night after the ABC obtained a letter outlining concerns about the treatment of a patient at Clements House at the Oakden facility.

The letter was written by local MP Tony Zappia and sent to Ms Vlahos in 2015.