ALISON'S STORY

On 23 March 2015 the NT News wrote a concise little piece about a health practitioner who was caught and charged with possession cannabis. The story appeared to originate from a colleague, who reported her concerns to AHPRA. The NT News seemed to have the gig sealed.

But the response from the northern territory department of health seemed to allude to another story altogether. Michael Kalimnios, spokesperson for the department said “The Department of Health has protocols and guidelines to follow when any employee has been found to breach employment conditions and appropriate action will be taken.' The mister men were intrigued. How weird was that response.

Poulsen's story briefly lit up on the twitter sphere and quickly faded like a dying star. Then all of a sudden it reappeared three months later by way of another NT News exclusive on 17 June. This time Poulsen pulled no punches and led with 'A health practitioner working in a remote clinic who was caught at Darwin airport in possession of marijuana has kept her job'.

The health department again wheeled out their spokesperson Michael Kalimnios and this time he seemed intent of throwing a few punches of his own in an effort to knock the story stone cold out. '“The supervisory arrangements in place for this employee meet AHPRA requirements and the employee’s current duties are in line with these requirements.' he pronounced. The desire to kill the story glowed. There appeared to be nothing left to say. Knock out blow delivered, the mister men placed it in the too hard box and moved on.

Then a few days ago, we received an email. 'I want to talk to someone about the drugs story. There's more to this than meets the eye.' So we arranged to meet one evening at a popular Darwin spot.

Alison (not her real name) brought a file of documents with her. She explained that she used to work at the clinic in Numbulwar. She said, 'I've worked in a lot of clinics across the top end of the northern territory and they all have their challenges, but this one is different, this one is strange.' How so?

'I was told to try and get this AHP, the one in the paper, to see patients. I was told she had some conditions on her registration but they were trivial and happened because a 'crazy' ex manager had reported her to AHPRA.' Alison said, 'Basically the AHP does nothing unless it involves driving. No patient care at all. Nothing. Any attempt to try to get her to help results in open hostility. When I spoke to the other nurses about it they told me to say nothing if I wanted to keep my job. I was told that a previous manager had tried to fix the problems and it resulted in him and his wife being duck shoved last August by the district manager. I was told by another nurse 'we don't ask any questions here.' Bad things happen to those who do. The inference was obvious. Say nothing.'

Alison then described how she became suspicious and decided to check on the AHPRA web site. She said, 'The conditions are pretty onerous. The AHP requires supervision but she should be seeing patients. I mean, how is she going to improve if she doesn't see patients? The whole thing seemed strange and not consistent. And then I came across this in a folder in the clinic by accident.' Alison pulled out her file and flicked through its contents. 'It's the initial complaints made to AHPRA'. 'Basically, its a time line of concerns starting in mid 2012 and contains the concerns of several clinicians. And I can tell you there is nothing trivial about it at all. It's actually pretty bloody worrying.'

Alison went on the describe the AHP. 'The more I got to know her, the more obvious it was that she was coming to work stoned. Then, she'd drive off, have a bong and return to the clinic off her face and go on the internet. The weird thing was that everyone knew but did nothing about it. No one dared. One day we got talking, me and another AHP and she said that it had been like this for years.' Finally, Alison said, 'I was so glad to leave that place. It was like a cross between Stepford Wives and House of Cards. Everyone was living a lie and pretending it was paradise, but also with this tension in the air all the time.'

Back at base, the mister men analysed the notes we'd been given by Alison.

In the 69 pages of evidence we were given, we found:

• 87 documented clinical complaints
• 7 documented times when named senior managers were alerted to serious concerns about the AHP
• 7 letters written by clinicians detailing clinical concerns or serious deficits
• 3 incident forms
• Concerns in March 2013, from two AHP colleagues, that the AHP in the NT News stories was on drugs. That's right. TWO YEARS AGO.

And absolutely no action was ever taken by the northern territory department of health. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Sweet FA. Even though they knew. More than knew.

From here on the story takes a more sinister twist.

In late March 2013, the clinic manager call AHPRA and asks for advice. In fact he appears to call twice. In mid April, AHPRA call him and follow up by email. Their response is 'make the notification, we are concerned.' Then there is a pause for a few weeks. We wondered why. Until we read the notification. Handwritten on it are the following words;

'the organisation (top end remote health) has given me no support. My line manager XXXX has actively discouraged me from making this notification, hence my hesitancy.'

Can you imagine being stuck between a bullying manager actively attempting to block a notification of an appalling clinician, most likely on drugs, making errors on an almost daily basis? - and the law surrounding mandatory notifications? What kind of a manager puts a colleague in a predicament like that? One without a shred of common decency or honesty in our view.

But if you have your doubts, read on.

AHPRA filed the notification and wrote to the AHP. At this point, the northern territory department of health slammed on the anchors, turned the tanker around and sped into action. Great, you'd think, finally, they are taking some protective action for patients.

But you'd be wrong.

What they did was send out a Darwin based 'educator' in attempt to head off the notification by 'persuading' the other AHPs in the clinic to write letters in support of the colleague they'd complained about a few months earlier and say that it was all a result of bullying by the notifier. And when they refused, she simply wrote that falsity to AHPRA herself.

So we got to thinking about the comments made by Kalimnios in the original stories. When we first read them, we'll confess, we thought he was telling fibs. Now, with the benefit of the evidence, our guess is that he was probably lied to by his own management.

Watch your back, Mr Kalimnios!

So there you have it. The twisted macabre world of dishonesty, distortion, and manipulation.

Welcome to the northern territory department of health.

Sinister place. Sinister managers. Culture of cover up.

When is it going to end?

the mister men


UPDATE 31 July 2015

A 70 page document given to us by Alison was forwarded to Notaras a month ago.

We named the ,managers involved in this extraordinary story of cover up.

We named the managers including two directors who knew and failed to take any action - from 2012.

The AHP failed to fulfill her conditions placed upon her registration and voluntarily de registered herself.

And then resigned. 

She no longer works for the northern territory department of health but still works casually in the care industry providing a service for the most vulnerable people in the community. The mister men wonder how long that will last

At a later date we will release documents revealing the names of the managers who knew and failed to take any action, and did not support the concerns of clinicians thus placing patients at further risk. We will do this in the public interest. 

UPDATE (2) 11 AUGUST 2015

Crucially the northern territory department of health took no action against her. 

And recently we have received even more information about her from another very concerned nurse who worked there in 2014.

The mister men will release it shortly.

We support:

1. The mister men recommend CARDFIGHTBACK https://cardfightback.wordpress.com/

2. Our email is bully@tutanota.com

3. Read about HPARA here https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/bullying-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-medical-administration-dysfunction,7811

4. Please share us with all your public sector employed friends and family. Link here, https://ntdohbullying.blogspot.com