Townsville Hospital and Health Service chairman apologises to staff victim

Townsville Hospital and Health Service’s chairman Tony Mooney said the board had a “grave concern” involving an incident at the hospital last month involving a staff member and patient.

Townsville Hospital and Health Service chairman Tony Mooney said the board had held a meeting on Monday morning involving an incident that would require investigation, but he apologised publicly to the alleged victim involved, as acting CEO Stephen Eaton, staff and Mundingburra MP Les Walker looks on. Picture: Chris Burns

Townsville Hospital and Health Service’s chairman Tony Mooney has publicly apologised to a hospital staff member alleged to have been sexually assaulted by a patient.

While an internal investigation will investigate how this happened, the Queensland Police Service has yet to press charges involving an incident that is alleged to have happened between a nurse and patient on the hospital grounds in Douglas on Friday, August 16.

Mr Mooney said the incident was raised in a board meeting held on Monday morning, and that there were two investigations connected to the matter.

The first was an investigation by the QPS which he supported, while there would also be an internal hospital review.

“I’d like to first and foremost apologise to the victim on this occasion,” Mr Mooney said.

“Our staff come to work, they come to work for the care of patients, they expect to be able to work in a safe and supportive environment, it didn’t happen on this occasion.

“I have briefed Scott Stewart and the other state leaders, the matter is before the QPS and I have full confidence in what they might decide to do.

“However, the board has expressed its grave concern about what has happened and we have supported and spoken to the chief executive about undertaking a comprehensive review so that we can be satisfied that if there are any … improvements that can be made, that they can be made.”

THHS acting chief executive Stephen Eaton confirmed the patient was still being treated at the hospital.

“The main thing is that we now clearly define the scope of the review which will then go into answering some of the questions that we raised and we’re working properly on that,” he said.

“And we’ll keep the board up to date in our progress.”

Originally published as Townsville Hospital and Health Service chairman apologises to staff victim