Toowoomba nurse alleges safety concerns dismissed during DDHHS hearing in Toowoomba Magistrates Court

A court has been told multiple nurses at the Toowoomba Hospital Acute Mental Health Ward asked for more safety precautions before a patient attacked and seriously injured staff.

A hearing into Darling Downs Health safety procedures has heard multiple staff members asked for more security precautions before a nurse was attacked and left with a brain injury by a patient at a Toowoomba Hospital facility. Picture: Peta McEachern and file

A hearing into Darling Downs Health safety procedures has been told multiple staff members asked for more security precautions before a nurse was attacked and left with a brain injury by a patient at a Toowoomba Hospital facility.

The focus of the hearing, which is before a Toowoomba magistrate, is on the Acute Mental Health Unit, which is located at the Toowoomba Hospital Campus and run by Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service.

The ward is comprised of the following wings; High Dependency Unit, Jarrowair, and Bamal.

The Office of Work Health and Safety Prosecution alleges DDHHS failed to protect staff from violent patients, which included prisoners.

The state government-run health service is facing four alleged charges of failing to comply with its health and safety duty.

The court was told there was a major incident in the ward in 2019 when a psychiatric nurse, Oscar Javier, was attacked and seriously injured by a patient who had been transferred from prison - Benjamin Mead.

After being put in a chokehold, Mr Javier had to be revived three times with defibrillator paddles and suffered a brain injury.

The court was told that following the assault, a security guard was stationed in the ward full-time, however, a number of AMHU nurses said they asked for more security prior to the incident, which included a squashed petition.

Toowoomba Hospital. Picture: Peta McEachern

A current DDHS, who worked at the AMHU for more than a decade, said he launched a petition for more security in 2016 or 2017 because he feared for his and his staff’s safety.

He claims he raised the issue with management and the workplace safety officer multiple times.
“They didn’t seem to support (it),” he said.

“It wasn’t taken seriously… and many people left because of the pressure of the environment.”

He claims the petition was signed by many staff members, but that he was told by management to stop harassing staff which put an end to the petition.

“It came to that point where it came to my job and I couldn’t risk it,” he said.

He said he no longer has shifts in the High Dependency Unit and Jarrowair wings of the AMHU, because his shoulder was injured during an altercation with an aggressive patient, and said on other occasions his foot and rib cage were broken while attempting to restrain patients.

A former AMHU nurse told the court she may have been the first person to sign the petition, and that she also independently asked management to station security in the ward.
A current nurse also said she raised the issue of needing more security.

The current nurse said while working at the AMHU she had been pushed, shoved, and kicked in the stomach, but that the incidents may not have been formally reported.

She said in retrospect she felt like a fool for not reporting the incidents, but said there was a culture of not reporting out of fear of being a “headache” and causing more work for others.

The Toowoomba court house. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

During the proceedings the court heard, although security was not stationed in the AMHU full-time during the incidents, guards would do daily walk troughs and could be called via phone.
Each nurse also had a personal emergency button on their person which would alert security, as well as fixed emergency buttons in the wards.

The court also heard, the presence of guards was not always beneficial as some patients did not respond well to authority, especially men who were transferred from prison.

The court was told other staff members did not report minor physical assault incidents because they did not have the time, or staff, to spend time doing paperwork.

During the Magistrates Court hearing at the Toowoomba Courthouse in early 2023, a number of people took to the witness stand, which included current and previous medical professionals who worked at the AMHU, the DDHHS executive director of mental health Gregory Neilson, and DDHHS manager of ancillary (security) services Karl Robertson.

The questions put to each witness included staffing ratios, training, the positive or negative influence of security guard’s presence at AMHU, techniques used to calm patients, patients trying to steal swipe cars, furniture being weaponised, how often staff would be physically and verbally abused and the protocols around reporting those incidents.

The hearing will next be before the court on May 29.

Click HERE to read DDHHS’s statement.