Qld Health fail: Nurse ‘performance managed’ after rape allegation

A Gold Coast nurse who accused a doctor colleague of rape says she had to take long service, while he continued to work, in a strikingly similar case to one exposed by The Courier-Mail.

A Gold Coast nurse who accused a doctor colleague of rape 14 years ago said she had to take long service leave while he continued to work during the police investigation, in a strikingly similar case to one exposed by The Courier-Mail.

The Courier-Mail on Saturday revealed a nurse at a Brisbane hospital was told she could go on leave because the health service was not willing to stand down the doctor she’d accused of rape, despite an ongoing police investigation.

The doctor, who worked at a Brisbane hospital, was the subject of multiple internal complaints from nursing colleagues, including two who had accused him of rape. One of those nurses reported the doctor to police.

The hospital was also made aware of allegations the doctor had simulated a sex act on a nurse in the workplace and had harassed another nurse online.

Dr Juviraj Arulanandarajah was acquitted of raping the Gold Coast nurse but convicted of the sexual assault of another nurse in Victoria five years later.

The police investigation into the rape complaint is ongoing.

He no longer works for the health service.

In an unrelated case, a Gold Coast nurse received compensation after Queensland Health was found to have acted inappropriately after she ­alleged she’d been raped by a doctor colleague after work drinks.

Dr Juviraj Arulanandarajah faced trial in Queensland charged with raping the woman but was acquitted by a jury. Five years later he was charged – and later convicted – of sexually assaulting a nurse in Victoria.

He was given a community correction order, was reprimanded and suspended for three months. He now works as a GP in Western Australia.

Queensland Shadow Minister for Health Ros Bates during a news conference in Brisbane. Picture: Tertius Pickard

The Gold Coast woman was awarded a small amount of compensation after Q-Comp (now Workers Compensation Services) found she had been treated unreasonably.

The nurse was forced to take her long service leave – and worse was to come.

“I was going through this really traumatic experience, initially they’d told me they were there to support me,” the Gold Coast nurse said. “Within weeks I got called into the office after a 12-hour night shift without any warning … (they told me) I would be performance managed and stood down from all my senior duties.”

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman

Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates said: “These issues were happening more than a decade ago in Queensland Health and to hear these tragic stories again shows the State Labor Government continues to neglect vulnerable women.

“This government doesn’t listen and that has to change if we’re going to fix the Queensland Health Crisis.”

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said she had asked the health service to review their policies after learning of the recent case of the Brisbane hospital nurse.

“Firstly, I want to express my sympathy for the woman involved. There is absolutely no place for sexual assaults in our communities,” Ms Fentiman said.

“I understand the health and hospital service – all hospital health services – have policies in place to support employees who experience sexual assault.

“If those policies weren’t followed or are not up to standard, then that’s what I’ll be asking questions about.

“I know that there is an ongoing criminal investigation.

“I want to make sure that our hospitals are doing everything they can to appropriately, in a trauma-informed way, support anyone that has experienced sexual assault and I’ll be making sure that those policies have been followed.”