Nurse treated ‘like leper’

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 6

Nurse treated ‘like leper’

PA Auckland A former head nurse at Oakley Hospital says he was demoted and treated “like a leper” after he made allegations about patient treatment and staff standards. r ■

Mr Christian Stegerhoek in an interview on Thursday disagreed with parts of an Ombudsman's report about Oakley, which said that though the Auckland Hospital Board wanted changes at the hospital, they were not implemented. He said he had tried for months to achieve change at Oakley, but received no support from the board? . Mr Stegerhoek was appointed head nurse in February, 1975, after coming from Porirua Hospital. When he arrived, he found “just about everything was wrong.” Staff, were disor-

ganised and refused to obey his instructions. Supervisors preferred to stay in. their offices and do paper work instead of doing .clinical rounds on the wards.

“Staff pleased themselves how they worked. They gave drugs and left wards as they willed,” .._■?.

Dr Savage did not want to hear anything bad about his “loyal and trusty” staff, he said. Patients were beaten on a week-end he had leave, said Mr Stegerhoek, but when he returned staff “clammed up” about the incident. In June 1975, Mr Stegerhoek took a taped statement- from a patient about one of the beatings. “But when I gave it to Dr Savage, I was told my future was at stake if I carried on.” Mr Stegerhoek said he told

the Hospital Board about the allegations. An investigation took place, and concluded that his claims , were unfounded;/

Mr Stegerhoek said he was demoted in November, 1975, because of , combined pressure from the union and hospital administration. He said he-was dismissed in 1979 for unprofessional conduct.

Dr Savage said in an inter-, view yesterday that it was possible arrangements for electro-convulsive therapy might change or that Oakley patients would be given E.C.T. at a different place. Asked about an Oakley Hospital doctor’s statement that E.C.T. had not been used there since a patient’s death in February, Dr Savage said: “It’s a fairly rare thing anyway.” E.C.T. was a “wonder-

ful treatment” in particular circumstances.

An Oakley Hospital doctor, whose name was suppressed yesterday, said he had never seen a patient assaulted by staff since he had worked at the hospital. The doctor said he had “never at any time seen any bruises” on Michael Percy Watene, who died on February 22, in spite-of claims by an Oakley charge nurse, Mr Francis Mardon, . that the patient had extensive bruising. Evidence from a former psychiatric assistant was suppressed yesterday. The committee’s chairman, Mr R. G. Gallen, Q.C., said the evidence should not be published until the witness had been cross-examined.

The hearing will resume on Monday. ■