A nurse working in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program has alleged quarantined guests shared elevators and toilets with other guests and staff, and has raised allegations that suicidal guests and those with medical issues were treated as “problem” guests by government employees.
On the first day of hearings from witnesses directly involved in the hotel quarantine program for travellers returning from overseas, a nurse, who was referred to as Jen, spoke of her experience working in the Park Royal hotel and the Hotel Inn Melbourne Airport between April and June as a casual nurse.
Jen told the inquiry of poor personal protective equipment use and hygiene issues in the quarantine hotels run by the Department of Health and Human Services. She said it was obvious to her that security guards at the hotel had not been given proper training.
“I saw a lot of mostly security guards, for example, constantly wearing the same gloves for their shift, going to make themselves a coffee with gloves on, using their phone, things like that, always wearing the same gloves, wearing their mask so that the nose was hanging out or that it was underneath the chin,” she said.
Some PPE was not properly disposed of in contamination bins, either, she said.
“I raised my concerns to someone who I believe worked for DHHS [Department of Health and Human Services]. I suggested that it would be pretty simple for a nurse to offer some training to security or whoever required it,” she said.
“I [never] felt like it was ever acted on, it was sort of just like, ‘Yeah, sure’.”
In the Park Royal hotel, the up to 300 quarantined guests shared lifts and toilets with other non-quarantined guests and staff, she said.
Jen also reported poor record keeping in the hotels, which kept a list of guests’ names on paper. She said twice she turned up to swab someone for a Covid-19 test in their room to find the room empty.
In one instance she says a family of four went a week without a welfare check or a swab test from a nurse.
Eventually, she said, she resorted to creating her own Excel spreadsheet.
Suicidal guest allegedly told off
Jen alleged the attitude among Department of Health and Human Services staff based in the hotel who were there for escalating issues in the quarantine hotels was that any problems raised by guests were the fault of the guests.
Jen alleged “problem” guests had their names posted on a whiteboard in the Park Royal.
“Rather than proactively fix this problem ... it was the guest’s fault and they were being a problem, and they were being annoying, and they were constantly calling us,” she said.
One guest’s name who was on the board was a person who had threatened suicide. Jen said she saw notes about the suicide threat when she started her afternoon shift, and found it hadn’t been followed up. When she raised it with a DHHS staff member, she alleges the staff member said “they had specifically called this guest in the room, and told them that they need to stop threatening suicide just so they can get a cigarette”.
Jen said she checked on the hotel guest with a doctor and found they were unharmed but were distressed and anxious about the situation.
Other issues among guests raised by Jen was a woman unable to use her Chinese medicine for controlling her pain because she didn’t have access to a kettle in her room, and it was difficult to obtain, and what Jen described as a dismissive attitude from DHHS for a woman with type two diabetes who asked for more healthy food to be provided.
Jen also claimed nurses hired for the hotel by Your Nursing Agency did not have proper mental health training, and alleged one referred to a guest as being “crazy”.
Lawyers acting for DHHS did not seek to question her on her claims, but Your Nursing Agency disputed the claim that the nurses did not have mental health training.
Guest told ‘you knew what you getting into’
One guest, who was referred to by the inquiry as Returned Traveller 1, who returned to Australia with his family in mid-June, alleged he was often told dismissively by DHHS officials that when he made complaints about lack of fresh air walks, or the food not being kosher, that he “knew what he was getting into”.
He said his 28-weeks-pregnant wife was served smoked salmon, and whenever he raised issues with his wife’s health they also said she wasn’t the first pregnant woman to go into quarantine.
He said initially fresh air walks were every other day, but eventually came twice daily, albeit for only 10 to 20 minutes at a time. He said throughout his time in quarantine there was conflicting advice on whether he and his family needed to wear a mask while on the walks.
“The rules changed, depending on the day. Sometimes we were told we could take our mask off, a couple days later we were told we can’t take a mask off, and then a couple days after that, we were told we can again,” he said.
The Human Rights Law Centre executive director, Hugh de Kretser, stayed in the Rydges on Swanston in late June and early July with his family.
He told the inquiry he was only allowed two walks for fresh air during his 14 days in isolation, despite testing negative for Covid-19.
Those walks were only towards the end of his stay and were for 15 minutes at a time.
De Kretser and his family were kept in a room with windows that didn’t open despite him requesting openable windows because his son has asthma.
He said he was concerned about staying in the hotel after the reported Covid-19 outbreak. He said he was concerned that despite claims the Rydges had been through a deep clean the rooms were unclean with gloves and masks discovered when furniture was moved to provide more space for exercise.
• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
