Taxpayers to reimburse nurse sacked for twisting stroke patient’s genitalia

A Queensland nurse sacked after he was charged with grabbing and twisting a stroke patient’s testicles and penis during a shower will be reimbursed by taxpayers for his unpaid suspension, a tribunal has ruled.

The man was charged with grabbing the patient’s genitalia in the rehabilitation unit at Logan Hospital. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

A Logan Hospital nurse who was sacked after he was charged with grabbing a stroke patient’s testicles and penis and twisting them “in an effort to rouse” him during a shower will be reimbursed by taxpayers for his unpaid suspension, a tribunal has ruled.

Ahmadu Bah was arrested and charged with sexual assault on August 28, 2023, in relation to his conduct towards the patient at the hospital on November 22, 2022.

On April 26, 2024, he was sacked from his nursing job after he admitted to his employer that he had grabbed the patient’s testicles, a tribunal has heard.

Details of the criminal charge and his sacking were revealed in a decision handed down by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on March 31 where Commissioner Roslyn McLennan ruled that Mr Bah’s suspension from his job without pay was not fair and reasonable.

The current status of the criminal charges is not mentioned in the tribunal’s ruling.

She ordered that Queensland Health must reimburse Mr Bah for the normal remuneration he did not receive between November 29, 2023, and February 29, 2024.

Queensland Industrial Relations Commissioner Roslyn McLennan. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Mr Bah told police that he applied pressure to the man’s genitalia “gently at first and then gradually with increasing pressure” to “use his testicles as a means of determining whether (the patient) was conscious or not”, the decision states.

He also told police that he knew “that the testicles are one of the most sensitive parts in terms of inducing response to pain”, and he believed he had a “reasonable excuse” for touching them because he was concerned about his unconscious state.

Before grabbing the patient’s testicles, Mr Bah told police he called “his name loudly and repeatedly” conducted a “trapezius squeeze” and tapped “him on the chest with increasing vigour” to no avail.

After he applied pressure to the patient’s testicles to elicit a response the patient tried to move Mr Bah’s hand away.

A later investigation by the state’s medical watchdog ruled that applying pressure to the patient’s testicles was “out of scope” in Mr Bah’s registered nurse role.

Testicle grabbing was “not an approach that would be utilised in clinical practice and is not an acceptable or safe method to rouse a patient”, the Office of the Health Ombudsman investigation determined.

Ms McLennan ruled that Queensland Health had showed Mr Bah “a lack of natural justice and procedural fairness” by failing to sufficiently outline why he should not be paid while suspended, by failing to mention two alleged separate prior incidents of his inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Bah was working in the rehabilitation unit of Logan Hospital, which is part of Metro South Hospital and Health Service, when he allegedly sexually assaulted the patient.

Queensland Health claimed it decided to suspend him without pay due to Mr Bah’s alleged

three separate prior instances of inappropriate conduct including a 21 October, 2020, complaint from a fellow staffer that she felt uncomfortable, and again on July 12, 2021, when a patient complained they felt uncomfortable when Mr Bah touched them.

Mr Bah, who submitted he had a lengthy and otherwise unblemished work history, was initially placed into alternative duties in a non-patient facing role when the allegations were raised, but weeks later Queensland Health told him he was suspended with pay.

Less than a year later, on November 24, 2023, Queensland Health told Mr Bah he would be suspended without pay.

“The nature of the discipline matter therefore is of the utmost serious nature,” the letter to Mr Bah stated.

“The reputation of the department may also be seriously and adversely affected if you were to remain suspended on full remuneration, whilst the criminal charges remain outstanding.

“There is a public interest in maintaining public confidence in the department and the public sector, taking into account the perception of the public regarding the continuation of remuneration during the period of suspension and the very serious nature of the criminal charges against you,” Queensland Health told him in a November 24, 2023 letter.

Originally published as Taxpayers to reimburse nurse sacked for twisting stroke patient’s genitalia