Healthcare Australia chief forced to step aside after COOVID-19 vaccine error

The chief of the private health company at the centre of a ‘serious mistake’ in which two aged-care residents received almost four times the recommended dosage of the Pfizer vaccine has stood aside.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed that a doctor who incorrectly administered two Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine overdoses at an aged-care facility in Queensland had not completed the correct training. Picture: Getty Images

The chief of the private health company at the centre of a “serious mistake” in which two aged-care residents received almost four times the recommended dosage of the Pfizer vaccine has stood aside.

Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday said Healthcare Australia had misled the government by erroneously saying the Brisbane doctor that administered the incorrect doses had completed his mandatory training.

He said the healthcare provider had subsequently “had the book thrown at it” by departmental boss Brendan Murphy.

“The truth is, the thing that particularly upset us was the combination of somebody who was brought on untrained and then clearly false information, and that was false information despite ­repeated interrogation from the department,” Mr Hunt said.

“The company has now ­obviously made changes in management. It’s a company with a long history of medical provision across Australia, and a long history through COVID of medical provision. But frankly, we’ve thrown the book at them.”

Healthcare Australia chairman Daren McKennay said the company’s chief executive, Jason Cartwright, had agreed to step aside while an internal review and an investigation by the Department of Health were completed.  An interim chief executive will be appointed and the federal government’s former chief nursing and midwifery officer, Deb Thoms, has been installed to oversee clinical leadership.

“We share the community’s serious concerns about the incident involving two patients at the Holy Spirit nursing home in Brisbane and have immediately commenced an internal review to determine how it occurred,” Mr McKennay said.

“The health and wellbeing of all patients in our care is our ­absolute priority and we continue to work with relevant health ­departments to guarantee the ongoing effectiveness of the vaccination program rollout.”

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd’s investigation into the incident found the Brisbane doctor administered four times the prescribed dose and Healthcare Australia had falsified ­responses to the government by suggesting he had completed his training.  The embarrassing bungle on day three of the rollout also led to delays in the vaccine schedule.

Despite a week-one delivery target of 30,000 inoculations, Mr Hunt confirmed that 17,500 people had been vaccinated so far.

Scott Morrison stressed confidence in the vaccine effort and congratulated the nurse who ­reported the error.

“She did a great job. In our health system each and every day there will be challenges relating to human error; it happens in any part of our system and the vaccination program will have to deal with those as they occur as well,” he said. “There are systems in place to deal with that.”

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said “the government needs to get it right”.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was “very upset” about the error that led to the hospitalisation of an 88-year-old man and 94-year-old woman. Neither are suffering ­adverse side effects

The complaint will be referred to the Queensland Office of the Health ­Ombudsman, which has been made “aware of this matter”.

If substantiated, it would then referred to the health practitioners regulator.

Additional reporting: Charlie Peel