Media Release: NPAQ Demands Change at Townsville Hospital

Nurse Union NPAQ joins police union’s Ian Levers in call for Townsville hospital CEO to stand aside while an independent external inquiry investigates the entirely preventable patient and staff attacks and violent deaths.

Townsville University Hospital's CEO, Kieran Keyes, and the current Executive Team have been embroiled in a series of poor patient outcomes.

Highlighting this dismal state of affairs is the recent deaths of local veterans Vincent O' Keefe and Steven Angus. A shocking event that not only reflects negligence but also a callous disregard for our most vulnerable patients. Mr O'Keefe, who was awaiting nursing home placement in the secure Gerontology Ward, deserved the highest level of care and protection, which was clearly absent on Townsville University Hospital CEO’s watch.

The fellow patient allegedly responsible for the attack in Mr O’Keefe’s case was considered extremely high risk, a fact that led many nursing homes in Townsville unable to provide him with residential care due to his ongoing history of violence towards staff and fellow residents. CEO Keiren Keyes management allowed this high risk patient to be under the same care as O' Keefe and allowed in the same room. The hospital management even tried to coerce staff to report the fatal assault as an accidental fall. 

This comes on the background of multiple cases of violence to the nursing staff in nursing homes and staff in the gerontology ward not to mention well reported attacks on fellow patients, many of them elderly women.  My Keyes was well aware for many months the risk this patient posed on nursing staff and fellow patients.  Our members have confirmed all incidents were documented and provided to executive and Mr Keyes via the internal incident management system “RISKMAN” however again nothing was done. 

Local veteran, Mr Steven Angus’s tragedy is even worse. Officers of the Townsville  law enforcement team spent hours patiently talking him down and successfully facilitating his transfer to the emergency department for urgent assessment and admission. Against the advice of the overworked clinicians the hospital management allowed him to be nondescriptly discharged just hours later. His subsequent death at the hands of the Townsville law enforcement officers who tragically this time had no choice was entirely the fault of the hospital. Steven Angus was not fit to be released from hospital under any circumstances at that time. He was a danger to himself and others. Yet a culture of the executive management team visiting the Emergency Department during peak times and bed blocks to demand the "willy nilly" discharge of sometimes overwrought patients had set in. One of our treasured veterans lost his life entirely unnecessarily. A young police officer has to live with fact that he had no option other than to shoot a veteran who simply should not have been released.

Multiple whistleblowers have raised concerns beyond O’Keefe’s and Angus’s tragic incidents. Staff morale has reached an all time low ebb, with clear disillusionment in CEO Kieran Keyes' leadership. His administration has been marked by allegations of cover-ups, and a blatant rhetoric of deflection such as, "it’s under investigation, hence I cannot comment." It is a culture that deflects responsibility, rather than embraces accountability.

Only last year a senior nurse on night duty was seriously sexually assaulted during her shift.  Assistance was only provided when a neighbouring ward could hear her screaming.  This nurse is now unable to practice due to the trauma.

It's a tragedy that suffering patients are trapped within a hospital system which is more concerned with PR damage control than ensuring vulnerable patients safety. We demand immediate transparency and accountability. NPAQ demands that Mr Keyes stand down immediately. and we need an independent and external enquiry into how the hospital has got into such a mess and what needs to be done to fix it. Such as, the NPAQ’s Go Local campaign, whereby hospital boards will be elected by people from the community, not bureaucrats in Brisbane.