Gold Coast MP accused of putting patients at risk during hospital visits

A QUEENSLAND MP has been accused of putting patients at risk by moonlighting as a nurse at two Gold Coast hospitals.

MP Ros Bates, QLD Parliament Question Time, Brisbane. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

A QUEENSLAND MP has been accused of putting patients at risk by moonlighting as a nurse at two Gold Coast hospitals.

Health Minister Cameron Dick has written to the state’s health ombudsman, asking him to urgently investigate the “potentially improper conduct” of Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates.

Ms Bates, a former registered nurse and National-Liberal Party MP, says she shadowed clinicians at the Robina Hospital and Gold Coast University Hospital last month because she had received complaints about security issues in the emergency departments.

Mr Dick said he had concerns over whether Ms Bates breached conditions of her nursing registration, which currently prohibited her from any clinical work.

Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates. Picture: Liam Kidston.

He also raised concerns over whether she compromised patient privacy and confidentiality and whether she put patients at risk by disrupting hospital operations.

“These actions by the Member for Mudgeeraba offend professional nursing standards as well as standards of basic decency,” Mr Dick told parliament on Wednesday.

His statement caused an uproar in the House, with Ms Bates several times calling on him to withdraw comments she considered “exceptionally offensive”.

Liberal National Party MP Tim Nicholls came to her defence, describing Mr Dick’s comments as the “worst case of bullying I’ve seen in this place”.

Health Minister Cameron Dick has referred the matter to Queensland’s health ombudsman. Picture: Glenn Barnes

His colleague Jarrod Bleijie told Mr Dick: “You are so up yourself.”

Ms Bates earlier rejected any suggestions of moonlighting, insisting she only shadowed clinical team co-ordinators (CTCs) so she could investigate complaints about security at the hospitals. She said she didn’t perform clinical work, wasn’t on a roster and wasn’t paid.

“I was just being a politician who happens to be a nurse who was very interested in what was happening,” the Gold Coast-based MP said.

Ms Bates accused Mr Dick of playing politics, insisting he gave her permission to visit the hospitals in an observational capacity.

“I also recall speaking to the minister for health in the stairwell here in parliament and thanked him for the opportunity to shadow the CTCs at Robina and Gold Coast hospitals,” Ms Bates said.

She insisted her visits were worthwhile, given security had since been doubled at both hospitals.

Security guards were now also wearing body worn cameras to record assaults on staff, she said.