DOUBLE STANDARDS

Not long enough ago to make it unimportant, a nurse was accused of fraud. The nurse hadn't committed fraud and as is so often the case with the managers in the health department who make false allegations, not a shred of evidence was ever forthcoming or produced against the nurse to justify the allegation.

Needless to say, on top of that, the nurse was denied natural justice.

Being denied the right to present a defence and see the case against him, the second arm of the natural justice is the right to a so called impartial decision maker. 

In this instance, the impartial decision maker, found him guilty. She was ably assisted by a nursing director and an area service manager who were baying for blood.

The interesting thing about the so called impartial decision maker, was this:

She wrote the letter finding the nurse guilty of the allegation before he even knew there was going to be an allegation made against him. 

Isn't that incredible?

Now that's what you call considerate, isn't it? And impartial. It's reassuring to know that the northern territory department of health have your back when it comes to following their own commissioner's employmentinstructions.

Without further ado, the nursing director then reported the nurse to AHPRA. For fraud. She never even told the nurse what she had done. 

Even the general manager wrote and email to the effect of 'just do it'. She made no reference to any evidence either before making her decree.

Eight months later the nurse was exonerated. The allegation was false and the motive was spite.

But there's nothing unusual in that.

The police were never informed of the alleged fraud and no criminal investigation ever took place.

The department of health, like any public body, has a statutory duty to recoup lost monies and also to report alleged theft to the police. But they didn't on this occasion. It's pretty obvious why not; there was no fraud. It never happened. At least four of the managers knew there was no fraud as the allegation passed to AHPRA.

Why wasn't Queensland Health pay débâcle co architect Kalimnios crawling all over this? Isn't he an accountant? Isn't counting beans what he does? He'd know all about recouping lost monies. Queensland Health are still collecting over payments to staff that they blamed him in part for.

When it was all over and the nurse exonerated, did the worst ever nursing director get in touch with the nurse and say sorry?

After all, that is what anyone who had made an honest mistake would surely do. Maybe out of a sense of a shared professional ethic to do no harm? Or perhaps from a stand point of common human decency?

She never said a word.

And because there was no apology, we are left to conclude that she represented an organisation with no decency, no morality and no sense of right and wrong.

It was just another gutless, spiteful allegation followed by a deliberate denial of rights laid down in the PSEMA.

That's managerial in the northern territory department of health. We have seen so much of it. It is typical of the bastardly ways within the organisation.

If you want convincing scroll down the main page of this blog and read the headlines we've uploaded. It's quite a collection. Yet the northern territory department of health keep telling us how proud they are. 

Well, here's a message to the senior manager word smiths: the mister men are ashamed of your vacuous responses.

How proud is Michael Kalimnios feeling today?

His organisation are once again exposed tarnishing the reputations of honest people. Michael must be feeling very proud. Again. Yawn.

As this is a story about the way in which management apply double standards, here is the second part.

In November 2014, a nurse working out of the community of Wadeye was stood down on full pay pending an investigation into sixteen fraudulent claims for over time.

She evidentially had created a system that she worked to claim additional 3 hour overtime bands when she was on call. The pattern was identified by going through several old time sheets. Thus it was established that something had been going on for quite a period of time.

After a final meeting between a human resources person, the nurse and her union representative, no action was taken and the nurse quickly moved inter state.

It's incredible what you hear on the fire exits in Casuarina Plaza, isn't it?

The matter was not reported to the police for investigation as it should have been. No attempt was ever made to have the money returned. In short, she got away with it. And the northern territory department of health swept it under the carpet.

The nurse was afforded natural justice, union representation, support and it is believed, was even allowed to return to work before the investigation was complete. A final decision was not made until after she had been furnished with all of the facts.

The health department let her walk away and effectively wrote the matter off. Until the mister men found out about it.

But the first nurse was denied it all. Why?

 It's pretty obvious. Nurse 1 was being targeted and bullied and a had a double standard applied. That was the criteria. That is the level of hypocrisy existing in the northern territory department of health.

And even worse. We understand that nurse 1's managers kept that allegation in cold storage for almost six months before making it.

It left the nurse in an impossible position trying to remember something that allegedly happened and the health department not producing any evidence for it.

That's the insanity that goes on when remote managers target someone. That is how they pull the wheels off someone's life. False allegations, denial of rights and double standards. Bullying in otherwords.

This is what the health department said when the Wadeye story broke in the NT News on 7 December last year;

'“The (Health) Department takes all allegations of professional misconduct seriously, and can confirm that it follows due process including natural justice principles in investigating and resolving such matters,”

We are afraid the mister men are going to go on record and call that a bare faced lie to all territorians. It was made to cover the whole thing up.

The organisation is now a standing joke in Darwin. 

The northern territory health department is exposing itself to ridicule and suspicion because it appears time and again averse to telling the truth. 

Think very carefully before you work for them.

the mister men

11 July 2015

please support our education colleagues at CARDFIGHTBACK