Dhulwa Mental Health Unit, Elizabeth Lee: Nurse loses part of finger during alleged Good Friday assault

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association has revealed a nurse lost part of his finger during an alleged attack by a patient at a Canberra mental health unit.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has revealed a nurse working at the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit lost part of his finger during an assault by a patient on Good Friday.

ANMF ACT branch president Matthew Daniel fronted media on Wednesday alongside ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee where he told reporters the nurse was still in hospital due to his injuries.

“We’re doing daily welfare checks with him,” he said.

“We understand the patient aggressively pushed the door back and the nurse’s hand got caught in the door.

“The finger was ungloved and he’s undergoing further surgery to see if his finger can be saved.”

Matthew Daniel from Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation fronts media after a Dhulwa nurse lost part of his finger during an alleged attack. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

Mr Daniel told media members of staff at Dhulwa felt afraid to speak out about violence and had heard allegations about management shifting blame onto nurses.

“One of my own staff heard one of the managers at Dhulwa tell a staff member it was her fault that WorkSafe were coming into the facility,” he said.

“(The nurse was told) it was up to her to come up with solutions.

“I think giving a voice to this issue is making more of our members come forward, and they are asking us to go public more and more.”

Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee described recent events at Dhulwa as “shocking” and repeated calls for Mental Health Minister Emma Davidson to launch an inquiry into the mental health facility.

“We have nurses who have been assaulted and abused each and every day and this Minister has gone missing,” Ms Lee said.

“When you have a Minister who turns around, after being told numerous times repeatedly about the seriousness of these issues and says ‘hey you’ve got my number call me maybe’, it is incredibly disrespectful.

“She is either completely delusional or absolutely showing not respect for our hardworking nurses.”

Elizabeth Lee calls for an inquiry into the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

It was revealed on Tuesday WorkSafe ACT had issued an improvement notice and a prohibition notice to Dhulwa Mental Health Unit following incidents of violence at the centre.

However those notices were issued on April 14, the day before the alleged Good Friday incident.

The improvement notice states “on the (sic) 11 April 2022 at approximately 17:45pm inspectors were shown CCTV footage of a consumer physically assault (sic) a member of staff resulting in treatment by ambulance.”

“The control measures in place for the Occupational Violence Hazard associated with the work conducted at the facility failed to protect the worker.”

“The risk to which the worker was exposed was both physical and psychological.

“This led to a worker/s (sic) being exposed to occupational violence.”

The same CCTV footage was referenced in the prohibition notice.

It is not known on which date the alleged assault captured by CCTV had occurred.

Dhulwa Mental Health Unit, located in Symonson in Canberra’s south, caters to people with complex psychiatric needs who have been in contact with the justice system or who are at risk of being in contact with the justice system.

The facility opened in 2017 and is operated by Canberra Health Services.