HISTORIC RALLY: NURSES AND DOCTORS UNITE TO FIGHT PCH INJUSTICE The tragic death of Aishwarya Aswath exposed the plight of hard-working nurses and doctors across a WA Health system in crisis, and how the Department and State Government ignored their desperate cries for help for more than six months, until now … Nurses from across Perth rallied on Tuesday 25 May to support their colleagues at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) after three junior colleagues were reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) over the tragic death of a seven year-old girl. On Easter Saturday 2021, Aishwarya Aswath was presented at the PCH Emergency Department (ED) by her terrified parents, and waited almost two hours to be seen, before she died of sepsis after being admitted.
NO TRIAGE POLICY IN PLACE AT PCH On that night, one nurse was covering eight ED cubicles, another called to help administer life support to a critical patient, leaving a junior colleague alone at the busy triage desk with no triage policy in place at Perth’s largest children’s hospital.
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western nurse October 2021
Despite acknowledging the risk of a death or disaster in the PCH ED was formally and specifically communicated by frontline nursing staff to the Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) executive 12 times since October 2020, after Aishwarya’s tragic death, CAHS and WA Health prematurely reported the two junior nurses, and one junior doctor, who briefly saw the seven-year old in the waiting room, to AHPRA, the most powerful professional watchdog which deals with serious misconduct and malpractice, and before a proper internal and coronial inquiry was undertaken. The move has been widely acknowledged as akin to “pushing” junior staff “under the bus”, particularly after their concerns about significant risks were ignored more than 12 times over six months in the lead up to the death. The ANF WA supports these and the other PCH nurses.
WHAT THE EXECUTIVE AND THE HEALTH MINISTER KNEW CAHS and WA Health have admitted that workforce shortages, acuity and increasing patient presentation numbers at PCH had been formally and specifically communicated to the medical and nursing stream leadership group, and members of the executive team, on a number of occasions from October 2020 – way before Aishwarya’s tragic death in April 2021. Meetings had occurred between the ED staff and the executive, and data was presented to illustrate the concerns, specifically concerns around the safety of children in the waiting room. Minister for Health Roger Cook addresses the angry crowd
