Hospital worker sacked over helping mate sneak into hospital during Covid visitation lockdown

A Gold Coast health worker sacked over a series of events that started with lending a friend a shirt has failed in her bid to keep her job.

Andrea Perry was one of the first Gold Coast University Hospital workers to get a Covid-19 jab. Picture: Nigel Hallett

A Gold Coast University Hospital worker has failed in her bid to keep her job after she gave her friend an embroidered work shirt so she could pass herself off as a hospital staff member when visiting a friend during strict Covid-19 visitation restriction.

Andrea Perry was employed as a team leader in operation services at the Gold Coast University Hospital when she was sacked earlier this year over the July 2021 incident.

The allegations made by her employer were that on July 12 Ms Perry gave a uniformed polo shirt designed for an Environmental Services Porterage employee to her friend Tania Walker.

“You did so knowing that Tania Walker intended using this apparel to gain unauthorised access to a patient during a period of Covid lockdown within the Gold Coast University Hospital,” Queensland Industrial Relations Commission documents state.

The hospital also found that Ms Perry failed to comply with a Public Health Directive, restricting personal visitations in Queensland hospitals, by visiting a patient in Ward C at the Gold Coast University Hospital.

“This conduct compromised patient safety and the reputation of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service,” according to the court documents.

While Ms Perry did not deny that she gave her friend the polo short or that she showed her where to go in the hospital to visit the patient, she denied giving her the short to access a restricted area of the hospital.

She also disputed the fact that her friend wore the polo to enter the restricted hospital ward and that gave it to her for that purpose.

In responding to her show cause notice Ms Perry also denied that she and other staff members understood that the Covid-19 hospital lockdown applied to staff members of the hospital, the commission heard.

Ms Perry was one of the first Queenslanders to received a Covid vaccination as she was responsible organising COVID-19 deep cleans at GCUH, media reports from February 2021 revel.

The veteran employee, who had a previously unblemished work record, appealed her employer’s decision to terminate her employment on the basis that the “substantiation of the allegations and overall penalty proposed is unfair and unreasonable”.

However, Industrial Commissioner Roslyn McLennan found in favour of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service by confirming its decision.

Ms Perry said she was unable to comment on the situation but would be appealing the commission’s decision.