Qld Health: History of issues ranging from ‘fake prince’ to payroll debacles
Queensland Health may be responsible for looking after the public but it has done a poor job looking after itself, if these cases are anything to go by.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Queensland Health may be responsible for looking after the public but it has done a poor job looking after itself, if these cases are anything to go by.
While not all self-inflicted, the government-run body has a troubled history, ranging from worrying issues to truly bizarre public incidents.
The long list cost health minister Yvette D’Ath her portfolio in May 2023.
These are some of the scandals and issues with Queensland Health over the years >>>
DELAYS, COST BLOWOUTS
At least a dozen of the state government’s signature major health projects were delayed by up to 2.5 years or been hit with cost blowouts, documents revealed in March 2024.
And a handful of other projects, including a new $1.2bn hospital in Bundaberg, were on the brink of being hit with delays as authorities attempt to manage environmental, weather or contract issues.
Analysis of documents released to the Opposition and information provided by Health Minister Shannon Fentiman’s office revealed the budget for 12 projects impacted by time or cost blowouts had risen by $51.8m to a total of $2.29bn.
Queensland Health big build “traffic light reports”, obtained by the Opposition through Right to Information laws, revealed the redevelopments of the Caboolture Hospital and Nambour General Hospital and the expansion of Redland Hospital had blown out by years.
PAYROLL CHAOS
In July 2011 it was revealed that the struggling Queensland Health department ha three times more staff chasing down overpayments than those assigned to help workers left underpaid by its faulty payroll system.
A team of 71 case managers had been ordered to hunt $62 million mistakenly handed out during the long-running debacle.
By contrast, 21 staff man the “payroll resolutions group” which helps resolve claims of wage underpayments.
In an issue that rolled on for months, workers were consistently left short-changed and underpaid after a technical “fix” caused problems with the system’s ability to correctly pay overtime loadings. It was estimated 38,000 workers were impacted by the payroll glitch.
Queensland Health consistently argued the system had stabilised but a damning email showed payroll staff had no way of knowing how many people would be affected by the latest glitch.
One health worker, writing on social networking site Facebook, said her pay had included four different types of errors in the past six months and she was “nervous” about the latest bungle.
“We’ve got some big bills coming and I can’t afford to be screwed again,” she said.
In April 2022 it was reported some workers were still being impacted.
FAKE PRINCE
Fake Tahitian prince Joel Morehu-Barlow famously defrauded taxpayers of nearly $17 million by stealing from his employer Queensland Health before being arrested in December 2011.
Pretending to be of Tahitian royalty, Barlow lived a lavish lifestyle and splurged on Louis Vuitton items, gifts for friends and a multimillion-dollar luxury New Farm unit.
In 2013 he received a 14-year jail term and was eligible for parole in December 2016.
Morehu-Barlow resurfaced in March 2022 by giving a shout-out to flood victims, wishing them “love and hope”.
Morehu-Barlow was deported to New Zealand two years earlier after serving eight years in prison.
The man who once lived in a luxury New Farm apartment, was on the VIP list for Louis Vuitton and watched television on a $100,000 Bang and Olufsen screen, now spends his days hiking, volunteering and cooking with family.
“I remember living through the 2011 floods, coming together to sandbag homes and stores in Teneriffe and New Farm, losing power but maintaining our concerns for others, sending Queenslanders love and hope – stay safe,” he wrote in March 2022.
MOTHER’S PAIN
A Caboolture mother in April 2024 claimed Queensland Health failed her toddler, who was left potentially brain-damaged and fighting for life in intensive care after contracting the usually harmless hand, foot and mouth disease.
Carly Mulheran detailed her daughter Zara’s shocking deterioration over the space of a month, leading to her invoking Ryan’s Rule at Queensland Children’s Hospital on March 25 after watching her daughter turn blue in front of medical staff.
Under Ryan’s Rule a clinical review was undertaken and Zara was rushed into the ICU where she had her first cardiac arrest, leaving her with possible brain damage and a significantly injured bowel that will potentially require surgery.
Ms Mulheran believes Zara will not survive any surgery, and was asked to sign a “do not resuscitate” order for the 20-month-old.
JAB MANDATE
Queensland Health faced a showdown against almost 10,000 of its workers who were ordered to receive their first Covid-19 vaccination or risk being banned from government facilities.
About 11 per cent of Queensland Health’s 90,000 hospital-based workforce remained unvaccinated in September 2021, despite a department directive to have at least one dose by Friday.
Those who did not receive the vaccine required an exemption to continue to work in or enter a facility where patient care is required.
Staff without an exemption was barred from working and instead forced to access entitlements, including annual, long service or leave without pay.
MASS SACKINGS
Then-Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s most maligned decision was his call to sack thousands of Queensland Health staff in 2013.
Claiming there was chronic overspending by the previous government, Campbell slashed the workforce amid backlash from the public and scrutiny from opposition.
Unions and health experts at the time warned the mass purge, including slashing the much-criticised corporate office by 43 per cent, would ultimately affect frontline services.
In May 2013 then-Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk condemned the LNP for carrying out the most health sackings the state has suffered at one time.
“Today the Premier and the Health Minister have ripped the heart and soul out of our Queensland public health hospital system,” she said.
“In one foul stroke of the pen, the Health Minister today has set hundreds of thousands of families in a sense of unease.”
D’ATH DANGER
The state Opposition in January 2023 slammed Health Minister Yvette D’Ath as “a failure” who should have been sacked “months ago” over Central Queensland’s maternity crisis.
It was reported expectant mums from Gladstone were so fearful of travelling to Rockhampton to give birth that they are demanding elective C-sections, and that the crisis had been labelled “a national disgrace”.
“What we’re seeing today is mothers in Gladstone have little choice, the only choices they have is to have a caesarean-section which they may or may not need medically, or run the risk of giving birth on the side of the road,” LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates said.
Ms Bates questioned why Gladstone Hospital could not recruit extra staff to ease the crisis.
“Is it because the doctors have no faith in the Queensland Health system at the moment or the Minister presiding over all of it?” LNP leader David Crisafulli said regional mothers were being forced to play “Russian roulette” by driving to Rockhampton to have their baby, risking a roadside birth.
In an online poll, 94 per cent of more than 1500 couriermail.com.au readers voted to sack D’Ath.
RAMPING TROUBLES
More than half of all critically ill Queenslanders trying to get into some of the state’s hospitals were being forced to wait in ambulances for longer than recommended, data revealed in October 2022.
And ambulance ramping deteriorated to such a point a staggering three of every four people trying to get into Redland Hospital in July were left waiting in an ambulance for more than 30 minutes.
Health sector experts said the ongoing ramping issue was a “symptom” of a system in distress, which would be aided by communities being able to access the right care at the right time rather than have to escalate it to an emergency setting.
The opposition believes the 73 per cent ramping rate at Redland Hospital is the highest ever recorded.
The data comes after it was revealed earlier this week that one in five Queensland hospitals cut their bed numbers in the eight months to May, with some health facilities losing more than 15 beds.
MAYHEM IN MACKAY
A toxic workplace culture and “systematic” failures throughout Mackay Base Hospital led to botched surgeries and inadequate care that left three babies dead and dozens of women physically and mentally scarred for life, an investigation revealed in October 2022.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath, handing down the independent report in a conference room within the hospital closed off to the public, was close to tears when describing the revelations as “damning” and said she was “deeply sorry” for the harm caused to the women and their families.
“No family should ever have to experience the devastation of the loss of a child and certainly not under these circumstances,” she said.
“Our health system can and must do better.”
The opposition, which had agitated for the investigation, described the situation as a “catastrophic failure” of Queensland Health that should never have occurred.
Investigators were tasked with looking at the hospital’s operations between July 2019 and October 2021, but found serious issues spanning back at least a decade.
The report made 122 recommendations – 47 of which have been implemented, while the rest have been accepted “in full or in principle” by the government for implementation “as a matter of urgency” within 12 months.
COST BLOWOUTS
A multimillion-dollar election promise to build or upgrade ambulance stations in some of Queensland’s fastest growing areas had been marred by budget and timeline blowouts, documents revealed in December 2022.
It meant a plan once pitched to cost $31m may now came in at more than $53m, with none of the six stations delivered until early to mid-2024 – months before Queenslanders head back to the polls.
And Queensland Ambulance briefing documents, obtained by the opposition through right to information, show these issues come as patients and paramedics are increasingly spending longer on hospital ramps.
The Palaszczuk government, in its 2020 re-election bid, promised to build or refurbish six ambulance stations in Townsville, Rockhampton, Lawnton, Ripley, Caloundra and Morayfield to “increase access to emergency health care” and provide paramedics with “world-class amenities”.
QAS performance updates dating from June to September revealed the cost of the projects had increased or nearly doubled.
DNA LAB DEBACLE
More than 1800 false witness statements in at least 1260 court cases were made by the troubled Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services on whether DNA had been detected.
The damning figure was revealed by Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in December 2022, two-and-a-half months after an interim report from the commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing urged every misleading witness statement to be immediately tracked down.
In September Commissioner Walter Sofronoff KC revealed the first public hearings had uncovered a major flaw in how DNA samples were being tested by the FSS over a number of years.
A change in procedure in 2018 meant samples within a certain level of DNA were passed over for testing, and led to samples below that range being reported as having “insufficient DNA for analysis” or “words to similar effect”.
“In fact, the possibility of obtaining a profile from these samples cannot be excluded because, although it might be that the samples contained insufficient DNA to develop a DNA profile, it might also be that the samples contained (DNA),” he said.
Samples with even lower levels were reported as having “no DNA detected”.
Weeks later a commission of inquiry found catastrophic failings at the state-run DNA lab occurred under the leadership of lab boss Cathie Allen who lied to police, executives and staff.
‘TOXIC CULTURE’
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in December 2022 declared her department has “cultural issues” and conceded some Queensland Health staff were scared to speak up.
In a frank admission, Ms D’Ath said the culture at Queensland Health – which is the state government’s biggest department with about 100,000 full time-equivalent employees – needed to change
Pointing to the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing, as well as reports into the Mackay and Caboolture hospitals, Ms D’Ath said they showed there were cultural issues across the department.
“It is very concerning that not only are staff not willing to speak up, but staff are scared to speak up in some areas of Queensland Health,” Ms D’Ath said at the time.
“We’ve already started work to start addressing these issues. It’s a conversation I’ve had with all board chairs and chief executives and Queensland Health more broadly that this culture has to change.
“And there has to be mechanisms where if middle or senior leadership are not being listened to or are sweeping issues under the carpet, that they can be escalated.”
SPIN DOCTOR PLAN
A furious Health Minister Shannon Fentiman in July 2024 said she had nothing to do with Queensland Health’s controversial move to seek media training for executives, but intervened to axe it after becoming aware questions had been asked.
It was revealed Queensland Health hired a communications agency to teach top bureaucrats how to protect the government’s “image” from LNP attack when parliamentary Estimates hearings start later that month.
Queensland Health allocated tens of thousands of dollars to engage Brisbane communications agency Rowland to deliver “media training” to its executives.
BOSS’ HUGE PAYOUT, REHIRING
A high-ranking Queensland Health executive received a staggering $352,000 payout despite resigning of his own accord and starting a new job in the public health system just three weeks later.
It was revealed in September 2024 the enormous golden handshake secured by former Queensland Health chief operating officer David Rosengren, on top of his salaries at the department and a new job at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service meant he earned a taxpayer funded salary of $956,000 in 2023-24.
This puts him in the top 10 earning public servants in Queensland, with a salary higher than those of the heads of Queensland Rail, power company Stanwell, and Queensland Investment Corporation.
There is no suggestion of any improper conduct on the part of Dr Rosengren, or that he was not entitled to the payout under his employment contract.
The eye-watering figure prompted Health Minister Shannon Fentiman to concede it was “a lot of money” while underlining politicians weren’t involved in hashing out individual public service employment contracts and shouldn’t be.
More Coverage
Originally published as Qld Health: History of issues ranging from ‘fake prince’ to payroll debacles
‘She was raped, I was conceived’: Layne Beachley’s secret torment
For surf legend Layne Beachley, becoming the best in the world became an unhealthy obsession as she wrestled with dark secrets from her past.
Teen fighting for life after horror rollover, Moggill Rd closed
A teen is fighting for life, while a woman has suffered a serious injury after a multi-vehicle crash involving a rollover in a south-western suburb of Brisbane.