QUEENSLAND Nurses Union secretary Beth Mohle has confirmed there are concerns over certain practices at the Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital.
After the death in March of patient James Hitchins, who was in his 90s, at the hospital, the ABC reported a former senior manager had revealed she had been told insufficient staffing had led to the man’s death.
Ms Mohle said concerns had been raised by union members about certain aspects of the hospital, but that the same fears were held for aged care across the state.
“We have got some concerns that our members have highlighted with us about the skill mix and insufficient numbers (of staff) at the hospital,” she said.
“But we’ve also got concerns about the quality of care and safety in private hospitals generally.”
A coroner’s review into the patient’s death was reported to have cleared the University Private Hospital of any wrongdoing and found the hospital had correctly identified and attempted to manage the fall-risk Mr Hitchins posed.
Mr Hitchins died in hospital the day after being operated on for a fall at the hospital, the ABC reported.
He broke his hip in the fall.
Ms Mohle encouraged all QNU members to contact their local representative immediately if they had any concerns for patient welfare or a lack of resourcing of nurses.
“What we’re seeing right now is the pressure on the bottom line is reducing the quality of care,” she said.
Staffing levels questioned after Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital death
A former senior manager at the Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital in south-east Queensland says she was told inadequate staffing at the facility led to the death of an elderly patient.
The hospital has denied the accusation and the coroner’s findings reflect the hospital’s claim.
But the former manager, who does not want to be identified, is not the only person to have raised concerns about staffing levels at the hospital.
James Hitchins was the strong silent type but at 93, he was nearly blind, almost deaf, and had chronic kidney disease.
After some falls at home, he was sent as a private patient to the Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital for tests.
His stepdaughter Robyn Lidbury said she was not impressed by the standard of care at the hospital and twice found her stepdad eating with his fingers.
In March, while in hospital, her father had another fall and broke his hip.
He was operated on, but died the next day.
A former manager at the hospital contacted the ABC and said shortly after Mr Hitchins’ death another employee told her staffing levels had contributed to the elderly man’s fall.
“[The employee] said it was basically the hospital’s fault and they didn’t put enough staff on to look after him,” the former manager said.
“He got out of bed and was wandering about and had a fall.”
Coroner’s report cleared hospital
The coroner’s office said it had reviewed the hospital’s records of the incident and concluded “low staffing levels was not identified as an issue in the events leading to Mr Hitchins’ death” and that: “[his] falls’ risk was appropriately identified and noted that a range of strategies were documented to manage this”.
But the former manager said she had spoken to another work colleague about what she had heard and that person said there had been other incidents where patient care had suffered due to inadequate staffing levels.
The former manager said she raised her concerns with a senior staff member before she was made redundant in April.
A spokeswoman said senior management “cannot recall this staff member raising concerns relating to this incident”.
The spokeswoman added that the former manager had “made numerous allegations and accusations during her time at the hospital before she was made redundant and brought a claim to the Fair Work Commission”.
That claim has since been settled.
Email to senior management
The former manager also raised the issue of staffing and Mr Hitchins’ death in a wide-ranging email to Ramsay Health Care, which also sought her reinstatement.
Her email stated: “I have collected some interesting information that you may be interested in … such as … [an employee] explaining that the 93-year-old man that died in the hospital approximately four weeks ago died because we didn’t adequately staff the ward and supervise him”.
Ramsay Health Care never passed the claim on to the coroner.
The Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital is a new 200-bed private hospital operated by Ramsay Health Care and is contracted to treat 12,000 public patients until 2018.
Ramsay Health Care declined to be interviewed about what happened to Mr Hitchins.
In a statement to the ABC, the company said the hospital had assessed Mr Hitchins as being a falls risk and “the bed rails were up and the bed was lowered”.
“A room had been allocated closest to the nurse’s station, hourly visual observations were undertaken and appropriate falls management strategies were in place,” it said.
“In addition, there was no issue with staffing level or mix impacting on patient management.
“The coroner has provided his findings and found the case required no further investigation.”
Ramsay Health Care said there was no concealment on anyone’s part.
Additional concerns raised
Two other former employees have also shared their concerns about the hospital with the ABC.
“The hospital is broken – there are just too many things going wrong,” one former employee said.
“But people are too scared to speak up because of the power these people have over their career.”
Queensland Nurses Union secretary Beth Mohle said their members believed “there are insufficient nurses working in a number of areas and also that the mix of nurses isn’t sufficient to deal with the complexity of care”.
The former manager has accused Ramsay Health Care of putting profits before patients.
“That’s how Ramsay makes money, that’s how they can offer the service cheaper than the public health system can,” she said.
“They compromise on the level of experience and the amount of staff.”
Falls prevention at hospital
The Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital said it complied with national standards to prevent falls, and the number of falls in the first half of this year equalled the Australian average.
It also said it had improved education about falls prevention since Mr Hitchins’ death, purchased falls alarm mats, established a working party, and revised its risk screening.
But Mr Hitchins’ daughter and the former manager said it was the hospital’s standard of care and their rostering of staff that needed to be improved.
“It was preventable,” the former manager said about Mr Hitchins’ fall.
“The manager saying to me, ‘you know – he had a good innings’.
“If that was my dad, that’s not good enough.”