Tom Smith calls on Stephen Bennett to take evidence to police

Sensational claims of poisonings, cover ups and even death at the Bundaberg Hospital needed to be backed up with evidence and action, Bundaberg MP Tom Smith says.

Bundaberg MP Tom Smith has hit back at allegations of poisoning and death at the Bundaberg Hospital, demanding that Burnett MP Stephen Bennett provide evidence to the State Health Minister and Queensland Police.

Talking at a Regional Community Forum in Bundaberg, Mr Smith said there was absolutely no evidence from hospital reviews to back the claims.

“There is absolutely no evidence to suggest from the reviews that happened through Wide Bay Health and also through the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission that any harm occurred to that patient and absolutely no evidence to suggest that death occurred because of that medication,” Mr Smith said.

“In fact, if you do the research, 450 milligrams is the lowest overdose total that's ever resulted in death; that’s 90 times more than what this nurse administered.

“That nurse needed to be disciplined, and was done so by Wide Bay Health.”

Member for Bundaberg Tom Smith, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Leanne Linard and Hervey Bay MP Adrian Tantari were some of the ministers and MPs at the Regional Community Forum held in Bundaberg.

Another nurse was alleged to have given a patient endone that she had inappropriately accessed.

“At any point is there any suggestion that that nurse administered that to a patient, therefore, there is absolutely no suggestion from Wide Bay Health that that nurse administered medication that caused harm to a patient or was lethal to a patient,” Mr Smith said.

Two other nurses were reprimanded as a result of knowing what that nurse accessed but didn’t come forward at the time.

“For the Palaszczuk Government, the Health and Safety of patients in our hospitals is absolutely paramount, and absolutely number one,” Mr Smith said.

It comes after allegations of malpractice at Bundaberg Hospital left Mr Bennett so rattled he vowed to continue raising the issue until closure was given to whistleblowers, alleged victims and the community.

“The allegations that Mr Bennett are putting forward, he’s not putting these forward as allegations of suspicion, he’s putting them forward as allegations of fact,” Mr Smith said.

“That means that the Member must have evidence to support his claim.

“If the Member does have evidence that there have been multiple killings, which essentially equate to potential manslaughter, then the Member must come forward with that evidence, as it is extremely concerning to the health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders, especially those in the Bundaberg Region.”

Bundaberg MP Tom Smith wants evidence of the allegations made against Bundaberg Hospital to be handed over to police and the Health Minister.

Mr Smith urged Mr Bennett to meet with Health Minister Yvette D’Ath with his evidence.

“If, as the Member claims, there’s criminal activity happening at Bundaberg Hospital, resulting in the death of patients, he must engage police as well.”

Mr Bennett said in Parliament in May 2022 that a “tell-all” letter penned by patient advocate Beryl Crosby alleged patients’ lives were being put at risk, and that patient deaths had being covered up and nurses told not to report them to police.

“It was alleged large doses of Endone were administered to dementia patients so that ‘nurses would have an easier shift if the patients were kept sedated’,”Mr Bennett said.

While Ms D’Ath revealed that a nurse had been disciplined and several others sacked after an “internal investigation”, Mr Bennett said he wasn’t happy with the outcome and that dire issues had been kept secret from the public.

Now, Mr Bennett and Patel-era whistleblower Beryl Crosby have called for an external independent investigation into Bundaberg Hospital and Queensland Health.

Member for Burnett, Stephen Bennett and patient advocate Beryl Crosby say an external independent inquiry is needed for the alleged cover-up of deaths at Bundaberg Hospital.

“Internal investigations are, inevitably, a cover up, and we’ve made that allegation this week a number of times...internal investigation process [is] what Queensland Health are becoming notorious for,” Mr Bennett said.

“The possibility that deaths are involved really deserves an external independent auditor, to get in there and make sure we get this issue.

“Nurses are being told not to report issues to the police, and they believe this action is criminal; again their words, not mine, but I have a right, and I think I have an obligation to make sure these issues are raised until we get this closure.”

Mr Bennett said many people were doing the right thing by their patients, and the allegations were not directed at staff who were doing their “best”.

“Hardworking doctors and nurses are doing the best they can, but this is about malpractice, and of course, we already know one nurse has been disciplined, and we believe others have been sacked, so clearly there’s an issue that needs to be talked about,” he said.

“We want to know that those dementia patients and others in the hospital get a fair go, and that’s why an independent inquiry into this issue needs to be front and centre.

Burnett MP Stephen Bennett and Bundaberg MP Tom Smith.

“All I’m asking is that the Minister please give our hospital dignity and their right to have these serious allegations investigated properly.

“I feel for the people who have been trying to get answers on this for a long time.”

Ms Crosby said she has been advocating for people since she heard allegations of people dying and being harmed under the care of some staff at Bundaberg Hospital.

“I’m afraid it’s all going to be covered up, that’s my feeling, and it’s been very stressful to even raise these allegations,” Ms Crosby said.

“I’m trying to be the voice for people who no longer have a voice and I feel compelled to do that; we can’t let them bury this story.

“This is huge, this is patient harm, and patient deaths on a level most nurses couldn’t understand.

“This is not a slur on the good, hard working nurses at that hospital, but people have to be held to account.

“If there’s allegations of death and people being harmed, they have to be investigated thoroughly.

“There’s been investigations into hospitals down in Metro North that have never seen the light of day.

“You can’t rely on Queensland Health to investigate itself, it has to be an external review, it has to be.

“We’re getting no answers.”

Burnett MP Stephen Bennett also called on the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service (WBHHS) to order an external inquiry into alleged deaths of Bundaberg Hospital patients.

Mr Bennett also spoke out against “diminished services” under the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service CEO Peta Jamieson, after she sacked former CEO Adrian Pennington in September 2019.

“I’ve been fighting a fight ever since they sacked the high-performing CEO under really terrible circumstances, and I’ve said it in public and I’ll say it again, we’re on a steep decline from that moment,” he said.

“We were a high-performing hospital, we had so much to be proud of, and we’ve seen nothing but diminished services since that time.

“It was a cheap, political move to get rid of that CEO.

“We would have a level five hospital right now if Adrian Pennington wasn’t so unceremoniously marched out of that hospital for speaking up to the board and the board chair.

“Do I have faith in the executive? No. Do I want them to show leadership? Yes, because now’s their time.

“All the work that they’ve done to diminish this hospital’s performance, they can do one thing right today and they can order this independent inquiry.

Stephen Bennett and Beryl Crosby.

“Show some leadership that this community’s been singing out for, for the last three years.”

Ms Crosby said the Executive Board of the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service had a lot to answer for.

“I do blame the head of the hospital very much so, and the board,” she said.

“Two and a half years ago, we had a gold standard hospital, we had the best wait times, we had so much good that had come out of the years that Adrian had spent at that hospital, [and] to see it reduced to what it is today, it just sickens me, it really sickens me.

“If there’s any deaths found from this, those families have a right to know what happened.”

The local MP for Bundaberg was contacted for comment, but no response was given by the time of publication.

Originally published as Tom Smith calls on Stephen Bennett to take evidence to police