Unqualified staff gave physiotherapy treatment to aged care patients

A taxi driver, a chef and an accountant were among 11 fake physios employed by a therapist to treat dozens of vulnerable Tasmanians in aged care.

Launceston Magistrates Court.

DOZENS of vulnerable Tasmanians in aged care received pain relief treatment from unqualified therapists in a scheme for which a suspended physio now faces a maximum fine of $480,000.

The Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday heard a taxi driver, a chef and an accountant were among 11 fake physios employed by Libero Health Care sole director Michael Sylvester Dempsey to treat residents at 12 aged care facilities across the state.

Dempsey, 44, of Murrumbeena, in Melbourne’s southeast, instructed the unqualified practitioners to sign documents using the names of qualified physiotherapists and occupational therapists from the mainland, only one of whom he had never met.

The court heard 78 patients, aged between 67 and 99, received massage and pain relief treatment from the unqualified Libero staff from March 1 to May 4 last year.

All the unregistered staff were born in either India or Pakistan and many came to work for Libero at facilities run by Respect Aged Care and Southern Cross Care Tasmania in Hobart, Launceston and the North-West after chance meetings or through mutual connections with Dempsey.

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The court heard some expressed concern at being asked to use other people’s names but were told that they were using their names of their “supervisors”.

Those who questioned whether they needed qualifications to provide treatment were told they did not because they were “support workers”.

Dempsey on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 16 counts of knowingly holding a person out as being registered when they were not. Charges against Libero Health Care, now in the process of being wound up, were discontinued.

The court heard Dempsey’s scheme was exposed after a disgruntled former Libero employee, a registered chiropractor, found out the real identities of the workers by entering their phone numbers into Facebook.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) began an investigation on May 7 and Dempsey stopped practising immediately after receiving a cease and desist letter from the regulator the following week.

Prosecutor Kylie Walsh said the offending was among the most serious AHPRA had investigated.

She said there was no evidence to prove any harm was done but argued patients may have missed out on necessary treatment they would otherwise have received.

The two aged care providers Libero had contracts with received government funding to provide treatment to residents with high needs, the court heard, with the company’s contracts and the aged care funding instrument requiring that treatment to be provided by registered practitioners.

Defence barrister Simon Kelly said Dempsey had successfully run Libero for many years in Victoria but resorted to hiring unregistered workers after finding it “remarkably difficult to find qualified staff” in Tasmania.

Mr Kelly argued it was “not the most serious offending” because independent audits were carried out in the aged care homes and no patients were harmed.

Ms Walsh asked Magistrate Ken Stanton to order Dempsey to pay $25,000 in legal costs and $11,000 for AHPRA’s investigation, arguing the regulator was funded entirely from practitioners’ registration fees — a point contested by the defence.

Mr Stanton adjourned the case until April for further submissions and sentencing.