‘Someone will die’: Nurses’ shock sedation and data manipulation claims

Explosive claims of a “dangerous and unethical” cover-up at major Queensland hospitals have rocked the state’s health system.

Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland president Kara Thomas. Photo: Steve Polhner

Mental health patients are being medically sedated while waiting for a ward bed and patient data is being manipulated to hide the true extent of Queensland’s hospital bed block crisis according to shock claims by frontline nurses.

The allegations by nearly 100 nurses at Gladstone and Rockhampton hospitals has sparked calls for an independent inquiry.

The claims about patients being reclassified and stashed in short stay units to avoid emergency department performance breaches were revealed as part of a survey by the Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland (NPAQ)

“What’s happening in Gladstone and Rockhampton is not mismanagement — it appears to be deliberate concealment to protect funding. Patients are being medically sedated and others are stashed in short stay to avoid KPI breaches caused by ongoing bed block,” NPAQ president Kara Thomas said.

“Staff are being pressured to manage optics instead of outcomes. It’s dangerous, unethical, and happening every shift,” she said.

The NPAQ has written to Premier David Crisafulli, Health Minister Tim Nicholls and Director General of Queensland Health David Rosengren calling for an independent audit of performance reporting and data integrity across ED and short stay admissions.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls. Picture: Lachie Millard

The association also wants the public release of real metrics on resus ratios, sedation use, mental health wait times, and RiskMan follow-up rates as well as ministerial assurance that staff will be protected when raising safety concerns.

“If the government doesn’t act immediately, someone is going to die and they won’t be able to say they weren’t warned. Our members are watching patients deteriorate in hallways and chairs and being told by management to reclassify patients to protect funding. This is a cover-up,” Ms Thomas said.

“Our members are being set up to fail, risking their registration and fearing they’ll be blamed for any adverse outcomes,” she said.

One nurse stated: “Patients deteriorate all the time in ED. The response is often: ‘Lucky they didn’t go to the ward then.’ In fact, the deterioration happened because they stayed in ED.”

Another claimed: “As a nurse with over 40 years experience, I have never seen it this bad.

Staff are burnt out. Morale is at rock bottom. We are constantly over capacity, with nowhere safe to put patients. We do our best, but we’re drowning — and it feels like leadership is watching from the shore.”

A third said: “I feel like I have to choose between being unsafe with patients or unsafe with management. Every shift feels like a moral injury — knowing I can’t provide the care I was trained to give because the system is so broken. The worst part is how normal it’s become.”

Ms Thomas said the feedback of behaviours from the frontline constitutes potential misconduct under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 and should be referred for immediate investigation by an independent authority.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls said that the health crisis, referenced by the NPAQ in their letter was created by the former Labor government and is why they were voted out by Queenslanders last October.

Rockhampton Hospital is one of two that are the centre of worrying complaints by nurses.

“Under the Crisafulli government there are green shoots of improvements in key statistics like ramping numbers in Rockhampton — now at 31.6 per cent, down from its high point under Labor at 56 per cent in May 2023. The downward trend is also evident in Gladstone, where the latest monthly data shows ramping trending down and now at 17.2 per cent,” he said.

But the Minister’s response has been blasted as “party political spin”.

Opposition health minister Mark Bailey called for an immediate independent review.

“The Crisafulli Government must use mental health levy funding to make sure mental health patients receive the care they need and deserve,” Mr Bailey said.

“The Health Minister needs to launch an immediate independent investigation into both these matters, including leaks about real time data manipulation instead of ignoring these matters via party political spin.”

Queensland Health Director General David Rosengren has been assigned by the Minister to address the claims.

The Minister said that Queensland Health encourages all its staff to provide feedback about the conditions they experience in hospitals.

“This is why we passed legislation to require at least one clinician from each Hospital and Health Service to be on the board of that HHS,” Mr Nicholls said.

It’s understood Queensland Health director-general David Rosengren will urgently address the issues with the NAPQ.

Originally published as ‘Someone will die’: Nurses’ shock sedation and data manipulation claims