Health chief stood down and probe ordered into alcohol scandal

A health department manager is stood down after complaints he was offering to sell booze to guests in quarantine hotels.

Police and staff at the Brady Hotel in Little La Trobe Street, Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

A senior Victorian public health official was axed on Tuesday night after complaints he was scheming to sell grog for profit to alcohol-dependent guests at two city hotels used in the government’s coronavirus isolation program.

Just hours after The Australian submitted questions about the allegations against the Department of Health and Human Services manager, the government acted swiftly to remove the public servant and order an investigation into the scandal.

“A DHHS employee has been stood down from his role at the Brady Hotel,” a spokesman for the Department of Justice and Community Safety said.

“A formal investigation is underway. These are serious allegations and, if substantiated, are completely unacceptable conduct for a government employee. It would be inappropriate to comment any further.”

The public servant’s dramatic removal pitches the Andrews government’s domestic hotel quarantine program at The Brady Hotel and The Grand Chancellor into a crisis, and follows the bungling of the international hotel quarantine program. According to a written complaint, seen by The Australian, the DHHS official made the comment during a debate over whether guests at the Brady Hotel and the Grand Chancellor should be provided with alcohol.

“(The official) suggested that he could go and purchase alcohol for guests ‘at profit’ and that he would be charging people for ­delivery. This did not appear to be an ethical or practical way to manage this,” the written complaint by a staff member at the Brady states.

Some of the hotel guests are battling alcohol dependency and mental health problems, in ­addition to being infected with coronavirus, or being declared a close contact, so the environment is volatile.

The manager’s removal follows revelations in Tuesday’s Australian that the hotels are ­battling problems with security, infection control and tensions ­between medical staff, police and DHHS managers.

The Brady Hotel, which serves as a quarantine centre. Picture: Aaron Francis

According to accounts from hotel staff, DHHS initially banned alcohol from both hotels, where up to 200 guests are staying, but this prompted withdrawal problems among some people. Only guests who received an alcohol and drug assessment were going to be provided with ­alcohol. “DHHS were not authorising the purchase of alcohol from outside the hotel,” the complaint states.

A separate staff account, seen by The Australian, says the hotels were not allowing alcohol to be delivered, leaving guests paying $8 per beer. “The hotels are not allowing delivery of alcohol and keep changing goalposts as to; how much alcohol will be provided, if alcohol will even be provided and the cost of the alcohol,” the ­account states.

“At present, the alcohol is charged at hotel prices (eg $8 per beer). Now this may seem odd, but our chronic alcoholics simply cannot afford that. The hotels are not designed to be detoxification units and the staff do not have the skills to ­adequately manage (this).”

Despite calls from hotel staff for a board of inquiry to also ­investigate the domestic quarantine hotels, it is understood former judge Jennifer Coate believes the current problems in the hotels fall outside its terms of reference.

The Australian understands the DHHS has now agreed to supply a limited amount of ­alcohol to guests.

“In summary, it seems that when a complex situation such as this has occurred at the Brady, concerns are escalated up to PH via DHHS and decisions are made but with no real clear communication as to the rationale ­behind them. I was involved in a similar incident a few weeks,” the complaint states.

The complaint reveals the issue of alcohol was brought to a head when 40 backpackers were admitted to the hotel.

“After forty backpackers had been admitted to the hotel over the previous days, many requests were being made for alcohol to be provided,” the complaint states.

“(DHHS manager) was under the belief that many of the guests were ­involved in a group chat and trying to ‘play us’ in order to obtain alcohol.

“He expressed his concern that guests were planning to provide false medical information that they required alcohol due to risk of withdrawal symptoms, when in fact they did not.”

Multiple staff at the Brady and Grand Chancellor have called for a new frontline leadership role with an understanding of public health, emergency management, police and nursing to cut through bureaucracy and make quick ­decisions.