Health watchdogs receive hundreds of Geelong 2024 complaints
Health watchdogs received hundreds of complaints from the Geelong region this year, with nurses copping the most suspensions. SEE THE LIST.
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Geelong residents have made hundreds of complaints to health watchdogs this year, new data reveals, with the most suspensions handed out to nurses.
A spokeswoman for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) said it received 166 notifications about 138 health practitioners in the region in the 2023-24 financial year.
She said the majority were about medical practitioners, with 108 notifications about 88 medical practitioners.
As of June 30, six medical practitioners were suspended in Greater Geelong.
“Of the suspended practitioners, there are three nurses, one medical practitioner, one occupational therapist and one physiotherapist,” the spokeswoman said.
“Nurses made up the highest number of suspensions in the Geelong region, with three nurses from the Greater Geelong region suspended as of June 30, 2024.”
She said there were no decisions made to cancel registration for practitioners in Greater Geelong in 2023-2024.
“The national boards made one decision to suspend a practitioner in the greater Geelong region during the 2023-2024 financial year,” she said.
From July 1 to December 17 alone, Victoria’s Health Complaints Commissioner (HCC) received a total of 304 complaints from Greater Geelong residents.
HCC Adjunct Professor Bernice Redley said all Victorians deserved, and should expect, safe and ethical care.
“I take any alleged breach of the general code of conduct in respect of general health services very seriously and will takethe necessary action against providers who put the public’s life, health, safety or welfare at risk.” she said.
While the HCC does not give information on ongoing investigations, it is understood that so far in this financial year no investigations have resulted in orders.
The HCC handles complaints about both registered health service providers and general, or non-registered, providers, including naturopaths, dietitians, speech pathologists, homeopaths, counsellors, massage therapists, alternative therapists and other providers of general health services.
The commissioner and AHPRA must share information about complaints and notifications that could be the subject of action by the other body and decide which agency is best placed to respond to a complaint.
Anyone can lodge a complaint by calling the Victoria Health Complaints Commissioner on 1300 582 113 or online at www.hcc.vic.gov.au/make-complaint.
BANNED HEALTH WORKERS, HEALTH CARE COMPLAINTS OF 2024
Robert Evans
Nurse Highton’s Robert Evans, 56, was found guilty in the County Court in Geelong this month of raping and sexually assaulting a man in 2022.
During the trial, the court heard the victim had spent an afternoon drinking with Evans and his partner at Evan’s home.
The court heard he had “nodded off” before waking to find Evans performing oral sex on him.
While Evans did not dispute claims of the sexual encounter, he had argued the victim willingly consented.
A Barwon Health spokeswoman said Mr Evans had not been employed by Barwon Health since 2022.
AHPRA confirmed Robert Evans does not currently hold registration with AHPRA.
Joseph Chirawu
A Geelong doctor jailed for sexually assaulting a patient was released from prison earlier this year.
Joseph Chirawu served four months behind bars for the sexual assault and indecent assault of a woman at the Geelong City Medical Clinic in August 2012 and May 2021.
He was also found not guilty of sexually assaulting another patient at the same clinic after an incident in August 2020.
Chirawu was employed at the at the Ryrie St surgery before being suspended by AHPRA and barred from practising medicine in Australia.
His registration is currently suspended.
His victim, who did not wish to be named, said she was “shocked” and “disgusted” to learn he may be granted a medical licence despite his crimes through a tribunal hearing at the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Chirawu lost an appeal against his sexual assault conviction and four-month jail sentence after a four-day hearing in the County Court on March 25.
Charles Brownlow Retirement Village found non-compliant
A “five-star” Geelong aged care facility apologised to a grieving husband earlier this year for the care his late wife received, acknowledging some failures in meeting its own “very high standards”.
Rodney Reed placed his wife, Kathleen, in Charles Brownlow Retirement Village in early 2023 due to her progressing dementia.
He said the care his wife received was deficient and unacceptable.
One incident he noted occurred when Mrs Reed’s family arrived at the nursing home to find her with food over her face, hair and clothes, and unswallowed food pooling in her mouth.
Distressed, the family realised this may have been her state since the lunch hours earlier.
After her death later that year, Mr Reed filed a report to Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) detailing his frustrations.
He outlined seven issues he considered systemic at the Highton nursing home.
“Sadly, even after a Royal Commission, this experience is probably still endemic to many nursing homes,” Mr Reed said.
“We had to initiate virtually everything that occurred, including getting palliative care.
“God help people without an advocate in these nursing homes.”
In response to his complaints, the commission provided Mr Reed with a report acknowledging four of the issues were “systemic” and would be passed on to the Quality and Monitoring Group to be noted at their next unannounced visit to the home.
The report also stated the facility had acknowledged the issues and implemented staff education to address them where necessary, which the report deemed “adequate”.
Matilda Armstrong’s death
A 2024 coronial report revealed a young girl died in the Geelong hospital emergency department after she was not treated within the recommended time.
Matilda Ruby Armstrong was admitted with respiratory illness and was triaged as category three — which requires medical review within 30 minutes — on July 4, 2022 at 8.54pm.
Over an hour after admission, the 12-month-old was still yet to be seen and was found unresponsive.
The Charlemont baby was declared deceased at 11.18pm.
In response to the tragedy, Barwon Health has implemented a number of recommendations, including constructing a children’s ED and increasing the number of nurses in the ED.
The coroner’s report revealed Matilda parents, Adrianne and Bradley Armstrong, had also taken the child to Geelong hospital on July 3, 2022 after she tested positive for Covid a few days earlier.
She was discharged the day before her death with a number of prescriptions, including a trial drug.
Coroner Katherine Lorenz wrote Matilda’s initial and subsequent presentations to the hospital’s emergency department featured delays in time to assessment and treatment.
However, this was not identified as a potential preventable factor in the analysis by Barwon Health.
“I consider that timely assessment and treatment within expected triage time frames would have been Matilda’s best chance of survival,” Ms Lorenz said.
Barwon Health and an independent expert from the Royal Children’s Hospital recommended that the hospital review the emergency department waiting area and redesign the patient and carer escalation process.
They also suggested creating a care model with clear clinician oversight in the waiting room to actively monitor patients who exceed their triage waiting times.
Geelong hospital has increased the number of nurses in the ED, and their responsibilities now include initiation and reassessment of care for patients in the waiting room, including those who have breached their triage category waiting times.
Coroner investigates Geelong psychiatric ward death
A coronial investigation was launched after a body was found inside a Geelong psychiatric ward in June, the second death in two months at the time.
Police prepared a report for the coroner following the grim discovery of a 22-year-old Newtown patient at the Swanston Centre acute psychiatric admissions unit in June.
It’s believed the death, which is not being treated as suspicious, was highly distressing to staff and patients at the mental health facility.
Prior to the incident, family members of patients at the Geelong psychiatric ward alleged concerning conditions inside the facility – one patient even taking her fight to the state and federal government.
She claims to have witnessed soiled linen left in common areas during her routine visits.
She described conditions inside the unit as “overwhelming” and “scary”.
Barwon Health’s acting director of mental health, drugs and alcohol services, Maree Bennett, said it was their expectation soiled linen was removed from common areas as soon as possible.
“We apologise that there was a delay in this instance,” she said.
Ms Bennett said the ward had a multidisciplinary team of highly skilled nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, as well as peer support workers who were “committed to providing compassionate and high-quality treatment and care for consumers and their families”.
Atheer Hmood
A former Geelong doctor was banned from practice for at least eight years after inappropriately touching five female patients “for his own sexual gratification” while claiming to perform a medical examination.
The finding was not a criminal one and Atheer Hmood has never been criminally charged in respect to these incidents.
In December 2022, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that on five separate occasions between 2010 and 2013, Mr Hmood inappropriately touched the patients when performing chest auscultations on them in a manner that involved inappropriate and unnecessary contact for a sexual purpose.
One incident occurred in February 2010 at Geelong hospital, where the then doctor was employed by Barwon Heath, while the four other incidents happened at Kilmore Medical Practice.
The tribunal found there was no clinical need for Mr Hmood to perform the chest auscultations and the manner in which he made contact with his patients breast was for a sexual purpose.
His registration as a health practitioner was cancelled in September 2023 and he was disqualified from applying for registration for eight years.
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