Worried Patients Seek Legal Advice
The Age
Wednesday October 9, 1996
A Melbourne law firm specialising in personal injury claims has had a marked increase in calls from patients with hospital-acquired infections and concerns that their treatment took place in a dirty environment.
Ms Audrey Jamieson, a medical-negligence specialist and associate at the legal firm Maurice Blackburn, said the firm had no doubt the increase was caused by State Government budget cuts.
"Comments are constantly made about the lack of cleanliness of the environment in which they (patients) are being cared for," Ms Jamieson said.
She said Maurice Blackburn received such calls daily, but numbers had increased over the past two years. Ms Jamieson, who was a nurse for 14 years before becoming a personal-injury lawyer, said there had also been an increase in cases of golden staph, one of the more common hospital-acquired infections.
One of the biggest complaints had been about doctors going from patient to patient - sometimes touching a dressing - without washing their hands.
Other complaints were about the lack of cleaning staff. "People say things aren't getting cleaned up," Ms Jamieson said. "There are spills left on the floor. I've had a client say to me that in the toilets . . . stacks of bedpans . . . that hadn't been cleaned had been there for a long time."
She said patients complained of rubbish left on floors for long periods and sterile procedures not being carried out properly.
"If you take away the number of nursing staff and cleaners, there are less people and therefore less time to provide care. There are bound to be bad outcomes occurring," she said.
Ms Jamieson said if Dandenong Hospital nurses who tested positive for tuberculosis sought compensation through the courts, they would have to prove the hospital did not take reasonable care to provide a safe working environment. But under the Accident Compensation Act 1985 employees must also demonstrate a serious injury. Nurses who did not have active TB would not have a case, she said.
Taking a hospital to court was easier for patients, who did not have to prove serious injury. Ms Jamieson could not say how much hospitals were usually sued for in such cases. She said each case would have to be assessed on its merits.
"Health authorities have known about the increase in the incidence of TB and that it is mainly through immigrants coming from certain parts of the world where TB is more prevalent. With this knowledge, have the hospitals taken reasonable steps to try to protect their staff and patients from unnecessary exposure to TB?" Ms Jamieson said.
© 1996 The Age
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