Staff ‘psychological harm’ fears if VAD pushed into faith-based care

Faith-based healthcare providers are warning politicians that unless euthanasia laws are changed to protect their right to offer services in line with their values staff could suffer psychological harm.

Hospitals and other healthcare providers will be powerless to stop voluntary assisted dying taking place in their facilities regardless of whether their organisation and their staff have fundamental objections to the practice.

Faith-based providers like St Vincent’s and the Mater are warning politicians that unless the laws are changed to protect their right to offer services in line with their values and missions staff could suffer real psychological harm.

St Vincent’s Health Australia CEO Toby Hall said their doctors and nurses were completely shocked at the notion they might be forced to witness VAD taking place in their workplace.

“If passed in its current form, doctors and nurse practitioners will be able to enter Queensland hospitals – unaccredited by the hospital, unannounced, without permission – and assist patients in their premature death,” he said.

“Can we imagine that happening in any Australian hospital, for any other medical condition? It wouldn’t be tolerated.”

No other state that has already passed VAD laws including Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia or Western Australia has included the measure.

Wendy Roohan has been a nurse for 48 years and has worked as a palliative care nurse at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Brisbane for the past eight.

Ms Roohan said she was extremely anxious about the prospect that VAD may take place in her workplace and pleaded with the state’s politicians to reconsider that section of the Bill.

“I don’t think consideration has been given staff at St Vincent’s hospital or other Christian or faith-based facilities regarding how VAD is allowed in their workplaces and the psychological impact that would have,” she said.

Ms Roohan said although she would never judge someone’s choice to use VAD she believed she deserved the right not to have her values compromised in this way.

The Courier-Mail understands that Deputy Premier Steven Miles and Health Minister Yvette D’Ath met with faith-based healthcare leaders last week to discuss their concerns.

Mr Miles defended the proposed laws saying that in some situations, requiring an individual to transfer to a different hospice or service “when they’re close to death and in great pain” could subject them to distress and essentially deny them access to VAD.

“It’s important the voluntary assisted dying scheme provides all Queenslanders who are suffering and dying with equal end of life choices, irrespective of where they live,” he said.

Mater Director of Palliative and Supportive Care Professor Janet Hardy said the practical implications of a practitioner providing voluntary assisted dying in a busy, acute hospital ward were overwhelming.

“The whole notion of a doctor not known to Mater staff or patients walking into a four-bed bay in a busy hospital ward to administer a lethal dose without any notice is just inconceivable,” Professor Hardy said.

“The staff who have been caring for that patient are likely to find it extremely distressing.”

Professor Hardy said she also feared for other patients who could be upset by the process.

“Some patients share a room or an open ward so there are serious privacy issues that have to be addressed,” she said.