Returned travellers, nurses tell of mistakes in hotel quarantine program

Pictures of blood on sheets and gloves left on the ground have been shared at the hotel quarantine inquiry after a guest found them in his room.

A family entering Melbourne’s hotel quarantine entered their rooms to find a used mask and gloves left behind, mould in the bathroom, food crumbs, a stained doona and significant amounts of dust, the inquiry has heard.

Hugh de Kretser quarantined at Rydges Hotel with his wife and two children for 14 days from June 27. He showed the inquiry a number of photos of his family’s unclean rooms, noting the dust was a particular concern as his son has asthma.

He had expected the hotel to be extremely clean after reports of a “deep clean” following a bed bug infestation earlier in June, Mr de Kretser said.

Mr de Krester, who is a lawyer and the executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said while he strongly supported quarantine he believed aspects of the system in Melbourne presented human rights issues.

His family did not leave their two adjoined rooms at all for 12 days, before being allowed out for 15-minute fresh air breaks on the last two days.

This was a real concern, particularly when it comes to vulnerable people such as those with disabilities or mental health issues and children, Mr de Kretser said.

“When you detain someone you have obligations to look after their welfare. A key part of that is providing access to fresh air and exercise,” he said. “These are things that are absolutely mandated when you are looking at prison context. It should be part of any quarantine program.”

Blood was seen on the doona. Source: COVID-19 inquiry.

What the |de Krester family found in their room did not give them confidence about the cleanliness of the hotel. Source: COVID-19 inquiry.

SUICIDAL GUEST ACCUSED OF WANTING CIGARETTE

A suicidal guest in hotel quarantine was accused of just wanting a cigarette by a health department staffer, according to a nurse who worked in the program.

Nurse Jen, whose surname cannot be published, told the inquiry into Melbourne’s hotel quarantine program she had serious concerns about how vulnerable guests were treated while detained.

One day, she started her shift at the Parkroyal hotel at Melbourne Airport and saw in the notes a guest had said they were considering suicide, she said.

Jen said she raised it with the doctor on duty, who was unaware, and then with staff for the Department of Health and Human Services.

“At that point, a person who worked for DHHS told me they had specifically called this guest in the room and told them that they needed to stop threatening suicide just so they can get a cigarette.” The message was essentially “stop being so dramatic”, she added.

After trying to call the patient twice to no avail, Jen said she and the doctor on duty dressed in full PPE to knock on the guest’s door.

The person was unharmed, but “stressed and anxious”, Jen said, and the whole incident left the nurse feeling angry and like she didn’t want to work in quarantine anymore.

In another incident a woman with endometriosis was denied access to a kettle to prepare traditional Chinese medicine she usually used to control her pain, Jen said.

“This person was in a lot of pain,” Jen said, describing her as having been almost in the foetal position. “They couldn’t speak in full sentences. They were sobbing.”

The woman was reluctant to take Western medicine, Jen said, but eventually agreed to take some Naprogesic, which Jen bought at the pharmacy at Melbourne Airport as it wasn’t among the medicines available for nurses to administer.

Jen worked in hotel quarantine from late April to early June.

Nurse Jen told the inquiry she saw masks being used incorrectly and vulnerable patients dismissed by DHHS. Picture: Handout via NCA NewsWire

Fresh air was rare for some in quarantine, with one family inside for 12 straight days and a couple who had no fresh air for the entire two weeks. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

COVID-19 PATIENT LEFT IN LOBBY

Another nurse told the inquiry he was “blown away” when he saw a woman who had tested positive to COVID-19 standing in a busy hotel lobby wearing no mask or gloves.

It was among a number of worrying mistakes Michael Tait observed during his “chaotic” time working in quarantine hotels.

“I was off shift when I saw her standing there without gloves or a mask on in the lobby filled with security guards and some of them had their masks on, some of them didn’t,” he said.

“As soon as I saw her I instantly grabbed some of the guards’ masks and gloves and handed them to her and said, you have to put these on.”

She was there without a mask for almost two hours, he said in his statement, adding she had been scheduled to leave the hotel at noon but stayed until 10pm due to a transport issue.

There were numerous other problems with keeping guests happy and healthy. Diabetic guests in quarantine had blood sugar “through the roof” from sugary food, a person with coeliac disease was served food with gluten, and there were “lonely” patients who nurses had no time to properly care for, he said.

Mr Tait said he could not understand why guests couldn’t use UberEats to help cater for the myriad dietary requirements.

He also told the inquiry there was a severe shortage of personal protective equipment and that he wasn’t comfortable with the level of protection he had while swabbing people for COVID-19.

There would be “crazy orders” of PPE, he told the inquiry, such as 10 boxes of large-sized gloves when most of the nurses were young women with small hands.

He observed security guards not wearing PPE correctly and getting “offended” when told by nurses they needed to wear masks at all times, he said.

Vulnerable patients were dismissed by DHHS staff, a nurse has told the quarantine inquiry. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

‘YOU’RE NOT THE FIRST PREGNANT WOMAN HERE’

A man who spent half of June in hotel quarantine with his young family has revealed a number of absurd and frustrating mistakes made during their stay, including his two toddlers seemingly listed as the adults in the room and off-limits smoked salmon provided to his pregnant wife.

The man, who cannot be identified, told the inquiry into the Melbourne hotel quarantine scheme he was frequently on the phone with the staff running the program about various problems, but “everyone sent me somewhere else”.

Despite the man warning ahead of entering quarantine that his family had strict religious requirements for food, as well as restrictions on what his pregnant wife could safely eat, his family received incorrect food, the man said. He told the inquiry he had to ring the caterer, who hadn’t been told, to sort it out after entering quarantine.

As he and his wife tried to organise a room with a hot bath to relieve her back pain, the man said, she was told “You’re not the first pregnant woman to come here”.

There also appeared to have been an odd mistake made in which his two toddlers were listed as the adults in the room, and his own name was not on the list of quarantining guests, the man said.

“The adult food was listed as the children’s names, my son and my daughter,” and the children’s food was just labelled “Child”.

“At least twice they called and said, can I speak to my two-year-old daughter’s name,” he said. “I said, I’m happy to give the phone, but she’s two years old.”

As well, during his second week in quarantine, the man said, his mother received a call from the department of health looking for him.

“She said, I told them he’s not here, he’s in hotel quarantine. They asked her, what hotel is he in?” he said. “They seemed quite confused. They hung up and I guess tried to reach me another way.”

MASK MISTAKES

During her shifts at the Parkroyal, where she was deployed by nursing agency Nursing For You, Jen saw security guards wearing the same gloves for their entire shifts, including as they made tea and coffee on shared facilities and while using their phones.

“(They would also be) wearing their masks so their nose was hanging out, it was underneath their chin,” she said. “It was constantly seen.”

Based on how security guards used PPE, Jen said, “You would assume they didn’t have training, and if they did, they weren’t following the training they were given.”

The hotels had adequate nursing staff and a good supply of PPE, Jen said.

Earlier this week the inquiry heard expert evidence that training and advice for security guards provided by the federal and state departments of health was “inappropriate”.

About 90% of current cases are thought to stem from an outbreak at the Rydges Hotel. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

TRAVELLERS TO DISH ON HOTEL DISASTER

Nurses and returned travellers will give a first-hand account of Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program as an inquiry into the scheme continues on Thursday.

Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser and travellers Ricky Singh and Kate Hyslop will give evidence, as well as nurses, and a fourth returned traveller who will give evidence anonymously.

More than 99 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the state likely originated from just seven return travellers at two different hotels, the inquiry heard earlier this week.

A huge outbreak at the Rydges Hotel in Swanston St, Melbourne, thought to be the genesis of nine in 10 cases in the state, started with a family of four who returned to Australia in May.

The majority of remaining cases are linked to a smaller outbreak at the Stamford Plaza hotel that had two separate origins – one man and a couple who returned to Australia in June.

But the breaches that allowed the virus to escape from quarantine and spread in the community remain a mystery, with investigators unable to identify the exact moment of transmission in either outbreak, department of health epidemiologist Dr Charles Alpren said.