A former Perth Children's Hospital healthcare worker says the facility's mental health ward remains unsafe and has contradicted the government's account of what happened on the night a 13-year-old patient was raped last year. The ABC can also reveal the hospital was not fully staffed that night, despite claims by the WA Health Minister and Premier.
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00:00 The incident occurred in January last year when a female patient was allegedly raped by a 13-year-old male patient in Perth Children's Hospital's acute mental health ward.
00:11 Do any of the investigations into this incident find that the ward was understaffed on the night this occurred?
00:17 No, staffing levels were as what they should be.
00:22 We've got more than a week in the hospital's case that it wasn't understaffed that night.
00:26 We know it was fully staffed that evening.
00:28 The ABC has seen a document which clearly states in black and white that the ward was down one senior staff member that night.
00:35 A clinical incident review was conducted immediately after the alleged assault.
00:40 That panel concluded that the optimal number of staff on the ward that night would have been eight.
00:45 We know there were seven.
00:47 Because the shift coordinator called in sick, a more junior nurse took their place and as no replacements were available, they had to pick up the nursing patient load themselves.
00:56 The report found that acting shift coordinator lacked adequate experience which may have contributed towards some of the miscommunication on the evening.
01:04 And that insufficient staffing was one of a constellation of factors which combined to contribute towards the incident.
01:11 The ABC has spoken to a former Perth Children's Hospital worker who says junior staff did call security on that night but they didn't stay.
01:19 The worker says staff alerted senior management about safety concerns regarding the male patient prior to the incident but claims they weren't followed up.
01:28 Hello, my name is Aishwarya.
01:30 In April 2021, seven-year-old Aishwarya Ashwath died at the same hospital after waiting almost two hours to be seen by a doctor in the ED.
01:39 At the time, then Premier Mark McGowan told us...
01:42 The emergency department was staffed above its complement. It was staffed above what is normally there.
01:48 But a coronial inquest into her death recommended minimum staffing ratios be introduced at PCH.
01:54 The inquest heard staff were overloaded on the night Aishwarya died.
01:58 Australian Nursing Federation State Secretary Janet Ray says there must be greater transparency.
02:04 This government does not shy away from spin. It doesn't shy away from mixing up the facts to make themselves look better.
02:11 And they're not shy about throwing nurses and midwives under the bus and blaming the little guy when it's a systemic problem.
02:17 In a statement, the WA Health Minister said the ratio of nursing staff to patients that night was 1 to 2.4,
02:23 which was higher than what the union once implemented as the minimum standard.
02:27 .
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