WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

Sydney Morning Herald

16-05-2025

Sydney Morning Herald

‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

Murray Wight was laughing at a comedian's joke, something about cheetahs and greyhounds, when his attention snapped away from the stage and onto a man who suddenly slumped into the theatre aisle. Cramped in the dress circle of St Kilda's Palais, it was dark and difficult to make out what had happened. 'Did he drop something? Is he looking for it on the ground?' Wight and his son leaned over, propping the man up. Within seconds, the scene on those theatre steps became life-and-death. Two nurses and an off-duty paramedic came clambering down the stairs in the darkness – one of the nurses falling and landing hard on her knees. They gripped the man and awkwardly heaved him over his armrest, launching into chest compressions in the aisle. Stunned, Wight and his son stepped back and watched, locked into their seats. Other theatre-goers twisted and craned their necks, shining phone lights to improve visibility. Loading In the 15 minutes it took for paramedics to arrive, Wight shifted from panic, to frustration, to anger. Finally, he heard the first beeps of a defibrillator. 'I yelled, at the top of my voice: 'Stop the show, there's a man dying.'' 'It's crazy': The case for a defibrillator mandate One of the first things triple-zero operators do when they take a call is check whether there is a defibrillator registered with Ambulance Victoria nearby. There wasn't one on the night of March 26 at Melbourne's Palais Theatre. Nor did the venue have a defibrillator registered with GoodSAM, the app for cardiac arrest first-responders. Australia records about 32,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year, which is 25 times the country's annual fatal road toll. Leading cardiologists and CPR advocates are unequivocal: thousands of Australians would still be alive today if a defibrillator had been nearby when they went into cardiac arrest. Yet there is no legal requirement for public venues and buildings to have defibrillators on-site in any state or territory, except South Australia. In Victoria, WorkSafe requires employers to have a defibrillator on-site if cardiac arrests are likely, and if it is a 'reasonably practicable' measure to manage the risk of death. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest.' St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz As for public venues, registered and publicly accessible defibrillators are recommended, but not mandatory. South Australia's mandate demands defibrillators at public venues and threatens fines of up to $20,000 for any venue that does not comply. The mandate took effect for Crown-owned property – like schools, swimming pools, libraries and town halls – in January this year and will extend to some private businesses, buildings and public transport in 2026. Theatres, yoga studios and sports bars will be among those it applies to, and registering defibrillators within two weeks of installation is one of the strict requirements of the legislation. St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz said early defibrillation can improve a person's chances of surviving a cardiac arrest by more than double, and South Australia's mandate could easily be replicated Australia-wide. A person's cardiac arrest survival rate can decrease by 10 per cent for every minute a defibrillator is not used during CPR. Ambulance Victoria's median response time for cardiac arrest patients is eight minutes. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest,' Paratz told this masthead. 'There's clear evidence of its benefits and its utility. On a practical level, it's crazy to have laws in one state that aren't national.' Paratz, in researching the topic, found that Australia's inequitable access to defibrillators contributes to avoidable deaths. NSW is considering mandating them in public venues, but it's not on Victoria's agenda, experts say. The Victorian government instead points to last month's ambulance cardiac arrest registry annual report, which found the state has Australia's best cardiac arrest survival rate – the third-best in the world. 'If [defibrillators] are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head Andre La Gerche Loading The results are partly because of more than 10,000 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) registered in Victoria, which is more than in any other Australian state or territory, a government spokesperson said. 'We have also made it easier for sporting clubs and recreational organisations to access AEDs through a dedicated grants program,' the spokesperson said. The Victorian government has also rolled out AEDs across the V/Line and Metro Trains network. But St John Ambulance Victoria boss Gordon Botwright looks at the statistics differently. In 2023-24, 141 people were shocked by public defibrillators in Victoria – a record number – and 47 per cent of those people survived, the registry report boasts. Botwright argues those cases only account for a tiny fraction of the total 7545 people who went into cardiac arrest outside of hospital in Victoria that year, and the survival rate was far less overall – just 6 per cent. Applying the 47 per cent survival rate to the total number of patients, more than 3000 people's lives could have theoretically been saved that year if they had a public defibrillator nearby, Botwright said. The report notes that almost 80 per cent of the cardiac arrests happened at home. 'We've got an absolute sign here that we could move the 6 per cent [survival rate] to 47 per cent if we could apply defibrillators in publicly accessible spaces, or people could access defibrillators more readily, even in their homes and suburbs,' Botwright said. 'We could shift that.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head André La Gerche said virtually all arguments against mandating defibrillators in public venues and spaces were either unfounded, or could be addressed. Loading Defibrillators are completely safe and cannot be misused, he said. 'If they are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest, then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low,' La Gerche said. 'The mandatory placement of defibrillators in public spaces results in awareness and also a degree of predictability, such that when an arrest occurs, the question is, 'where is the defibrillator?', rather than, 'is there a defibrillator?' 'These things save time and save lives.' Sue's son died. Years later, she saved Liam The last thing Liam Birch remembers is a footy being thrown in from the boundary, before his vision went blurry and he hit the ground face-first. Tony Freeman's reaction was instant. He ran over, began CPR, and called for a defibrillator. Within 10 seconds of applying the pads, 19-year-old Birch was 'pretty much back'. 'At first, I thought I was knocked out, but the ambulance let me know that I had a cardiac arrest,' Birch said. Years later, Birch found out the defibrillators at Wallan's Greenhill Reserve, where he was playing that day in 2018, were thanks to Sue Buckman – and the pair shared a tragic connection. Buckman set up Defib For Life after her son Stephen, also 19, went into cardiac arrest while training at Rupertswood Football Club in May 2010. The boys were years apart, but unknowingly rivals – Birch played for Wallan against Rupertswood when he went into cardiac arrest, and Stephen was on the opposing team, preparing to face off against Wallan before he died. Loading Andrew White, a paramedic on the sidelines, tried to save Stephen. He later co-founded Defib For Life, which is behind thousands of Australia's public defibrillators. 'The club didn't have a defibrillator, so all Andrew could do was just to go gung-ho giving his best CPR,' Buckman said. 'A few years later, [things came] full circle. They used a defibrillator [on Liam], and – hello – he's up and running around, as healthy as anything. I'm friends with his family.' On Anzac Day, another player at Rupertswood went into cardiac arrest for the first time since Stephen died 15 years ago. This time, trainers revived the 37-year-old reserves player with two shocks of a defibrillator – the very first defibrillator Defib For Life supplied. The man has since been discharged from hospital. Defib For Life is lobbying the AFL to mandate defibrillators at all levels of the game, Australia-wide, to show it values players equally. The league has not done so and did not respond to questions about the proposal. Buckman, now retired, still lives in a world of 'what-ifs'. What if momentum for her cause slows, and more people end up dead? What if there had been a defibrillator for her son? Would it have saved him? Nobody can know, and after that night at the Palais, Wight feels the same. When he yelled for the show to stop, quiet fell across the audience, and the house lights came on. Staff rushed hundreds of theatre-goers out, and the man who went into cardiac arrest was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene. Loading 'If they had a defibrillator on the scene straight away, they could have been [defibrillating] the guy within 1½ minutes, [or] two minutes of him going down,' Wight said. 'That outcome might have changed it.' Live Nation operates the Palais. A spokesperson for the company said the theatre has operational defibrillators in front-of-house and back-of-house areas, and staff are trained to use them. When this masthead attended a recent show at the theatre, there were no clearly marked defibrillators in the foyer, mezzanine level outside the theatre, or the dress circle. Citing a request for privacy from the dead man's family, Live Nation declined to provide more details about whether a defibrillator was offered to the first responders, the locations of defibrillators at the theatre, and why its defibrillators are unregistered. Ambulance Victoria lauded the courageous efforts of first responders at the Palais. 'We encourage everyone in the community to learn CPR and how to use an AED,' an ambulance spokeswoman said. Experts emphasise that it is not enough for defibrillators to sit on a wall, unused. They need to be registered, properly maintained and truly accessible 24/7. Paratz and La Gerche are among cardiologists leading the Australian Sudden Cardiac Arrest Alliance, a national steering committee advocating for public defibrillators to be mandated. Wight has become passionate about the cause since that night at the Palais. One visceral image motivates him: three women, barely able to move, desperately trying to save a dying man by torchlight on the theatre steps.

The Age

16-05-2025

The Age

‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

Murray Wight was laughing at a comedian's joke, something about cheetahs and greyhounds, when his attention snapped away from the stage and onto a man who suddenly slumped into the theatre aisle. Cramped in the dress circle of St Kilda's Palais, it was dark and difficult to make out what had happened. 'Did he drop something? Is he looking for it on the ground?' Wight and his son leaned over, propping the man up. Within seconds, the scene on those theatre steps became life-and-death. Two nurses and an off-duty paramedic came clambering down the stairs in the darkness – one of the nurses falling and landing hard on her knees. They gripped the man and awkwardly heaved him over his armrest, launching into chest compressions in the aisle. Stunned, Wight and his son stepped back and watched, locked into their seats. Other theatre-goers twisted and craned their necks, shining phone lights to improve visibility. Loading In the 15 minutes it took for paramedics to arrive, Wight shifted from panic, to frustration, to anger. Finally, he heard the first beeps of a defibrillator. 'I yelled, at the top of my voice: 'Stop the show, there's a man dying.'' 'It's crazy': The case for a defibrillator mandate One of the first things triple-zero operators do when they take a call is check whether there is a defibrillator registered with Ambulance Victoria nearby. There wasn't one on the night of March 26 at Melbourne's Palais Theatre. Nor did the venue have a defibrillator registered with GoodSAM, the app for cardiac arrest first-responders. Australia records about 32,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year, which is 25 times the country's annual fatal road toll. Leading cardiologists and CPR advocates are unequivocal: thousands of Australians would still be alive today if a defibrillator had been nearby when they went into cardiac arrest. Yet there is no legal requirement for public venues and buildings to have defibrillators on-site in any state or territory, except South Australia. In Victoria, WorkSafe requires employers to have a defibrillator on-site if cardiac arrests are likely, and if it is a 'reasonably practicable' measure to manage the risk of death. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest.' St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz As for public venues, registered and publicly accessible defibrillators are recommended, but not mandatory. South Australia's mandate demands defibrillators at public venues and threatens fines of up to $20,000 for any venue that does not comply. The mandate took effect for Crown-owned property – like schools, swimming pools, libraries and town halls – in January this year and will extend to some private businesses, buildings and public transport in 2026. Theatres, yoga studios and sports bars will be among those it applies to, and registering defibrillators within two weeks of installation is one of the strict requirements of the legislation. St Vincent's Hospital cardiologist Elizabeth Paratz said early defibrillation can improve a person's chances of surviving a cardiac arrest by more than double, and South Australia's mandate could easily be replicated Australia-wide. A person's cardiac arrest survival rate can decrease by 10 per cent for every minute a defibrillator is not used during CPR. Ambulance Victoria's median response time for cardiac arrest patients is eight minutes. 'A defibrillator is the number-one intervention that can save a life in the case of a cardiac arrest,' Paratz told this masthead. 'There's clear evidence of its benefits and its utility. On a practical level, it's crazy to have laws in one state that aren't national.' Paratz, in researching the topic, found that Australia's inequitable access to defibrillators contributes to avoidable deaths. NSW is considering mandating them in public venues, but it's not on Victoria's agenda, experts say. The Victorian government instead points to last month's ambulance cardiac arrest registry annual report, which found the state has Australia's best cardiac arrest survival rate – the third-best in the world. 'If [defibrillators] are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head Andre La Gerche Loading The results are partly because of more than 10,000 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) registered in Victoria, which is more than in any other Australian state or territory, a government spokesperson said. 'We have also made it easier for sporting clubs and recreational organisations to access AEDs through a dedicated grants program,' the spokesperson said. The Victorian government has also rolled out AEDs across the V/Line and Metro Trains network. But St John Ambulance Victoria boss Gordon Botwright looks at the statistics differently. In 2023-24, 141 people were shocked by public defibrillators in Victoria – a record number – and 47 per cent of those people survived, the registry report boasts. Botwright argues those cases only account for a tiny fraction of the total 7545 people who went into cardiac arrest outside of hospital in Victoria that year, and the survival rate was far less overall – just 6 per cent. Applying the 47 per cent survival rate to the total number of patients, more than 3000 people's lives could have theoretically been saved that year if they had a public defibrillator nearby, Botwright said. The report notes that almost 80 per cent of the cardiac arrests happened at home. 'We've got an absolute sign here that we could move the 6 per cent [survival rate] to 47 per cent if we could apply defibrillators in publicly accessible spaces, or people could access defibrillators more readily, even in their homes and suburbs,' Botwright said. 'We could shift that.' St Vincent's Institute laboratory head André La Gerche said virtually all arguments against mandating defibrillators in public venues and spaces were either unfounded, or could be addressed. Loading Defibrillators are completely safe and cannot be misused, he said. 'If they are applied to a person who is not having a cardiac arrest, then nothing will happen. The cost is now acceptably low,' La Gerche said. 'The mandatory placement of defibrillators in public spaces results in awareness and also a degree of predictability, such that when an arrest occurs, the question is, 'where is the defibrillator?', rather than, 'is there a defibrillator?' 'These things save time and save lives.' Sue's son died. Years later, she saved Liam The last thing Liam Birch remembers is a footy being thrown in from the boundary, before his vision went blurry and he hit the ground face-first. Tony Freeman's reaction was instant. He ran over, began CPR, and called for a defibrillator. Within 10 seconds of applying the pads, 19-year-old Birch was 'pretty much back'. 'At first, I thought I was knocked out, but the ambulance let me know that I had a cardiac arrest,' Birch said. Years later, Birch found out the defibrillators at Wallan's Greenhill Reserve, where he was playing that day in 2018, were thanks to Sue Buckman – and the pair shared a tragic connection. Buckman set up Defib For Life after her son Stephen, also 19, went into cardiac arrest while training at Rupertswood Football Club in May 2010. The boys were years apart, but unknowingly rivals – Birch played for Wallan against Rupertswood when he went into cardiac arrest, and Stephen was on the opposing team, preparing to face off against Wallan before he died. Loading Andrew White, a paramedic on the sidelines, tried to save Stephen. He later co-founded Defib For Life, which is behind thousands of Australia's public defibrillators. 'The club didn't have a defibrillator, so all Andrew could do was just to go gung-ho giving his best CPR,' Buckman said. 'A few years later, [things came] full circle. They used a defibrillator [on Liam], and – hello – he's up and running around, as healthy as anything. I'm friends with his family.' On Anzac Day, another player at Rupertswood went into cardiac arrest for the first time since Stephen died 15 years ago. This time, trainers revived the 37-year-old reserves player with two shocks of a defibrillator – the very first defibrillator Defib For Life supplied. The man has since been discharged from hospital. Defib For Life is lobbying the AFL to mandate defibrillators at all levels of the game, Australia-wide, to show it values players equally. The league has not done so and did not respond to questions about the proposal. Buckman, now retired, still lives in a world of 'what-ifs'. What if momentum for her cause slows, and more people end up dead? What if there had been a defibrillator for her son? Would it have saved him? Nobody can know, and after that night at the Palais, Wight feels the same. When he yelled for the show to stop, quiet fell across the audience, and the house lights came on. Staff rushed hundreds of theatre-goers out, and the man who went into cardiac arrest was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene. Loading 'If they had a defibrillator on the scene straight away, they could have been [defibrillating] the guy within 1½ minutes, [or] two minutes of him going down,' Wight said. 'That outcome might have changed it.' Live Nation operates the Palais. A spokesperson for the company said the theatre has operational defibrillators in front-of-house and back-of-house areas, and staff are trained to use them. When this masthead attended a recent show at the theatre, there were no clearly marked defibrillators in the foyer, mezzanine level outside the theatre, or the dress circle. Citing a request for privacy from the dead man's family, Live Nation declined to provide more details about whether a defibrillator was offered to the first responders, the locations of defibrillators at the theatre, and why its defibrillators are unregistered. Ambulance Victoria lauded the courageous efforts of first responders at the Palais. 'We encourage everyone in the community to learn CPR and how to use an AED,' an ambulance spokeswoman said. Experts emphasise that it is not enough for defibrillators to sit on a wall, unused. They need to be registered, properly maintained and truly accessible 24/7. Paratz and La Gerche are among cardiologists leading the Australian Sudden Cardiac Arrest Alliance, a national steering committee advocating for public defibrillators to be mandated. Wight has become passionate about the cause since that night at the Palais. One visceral image motivates him: three women, barely able to move, desperately trying to save a dying man by torchlight on the theatre steps.

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

ABC News

27-04-2025

ABC News

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

Nurses and allied health workers' lives were put at risk by a failure of safety protocols, according to the ACT's workplace safety watchdog. The ruling follows four assaults on nurses or allied health workers carrying out home visits in March. Canberra Health Services (CHS) chief executive Dave Peffer said the assaults were serious. "Serious enough to require medical assessment…we did offer occupational violence leave, and that was certainly taken up," Mr Peffer said. The incidents occurred during home visits as part of the Hospital in the Home and Belconnen Recovery Service programs run by CHS. Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer says they are working closely with WorkSafe to improve practices. ( ABC News: Mark Moore ) The staff involved have since returned to work. The assaults were severe enough that CHS was required by law to report them to the workplace safety watchdog WorkSafe ACT. A WorkSafe investigation into the incidents found: "The situations resulted in physical and psychological harm to the affected workers and had serious potential to result in the death of a person." "That's the finding of WorkSafe, and we don't step away from that at all," Mr Peffer said. "We've taken that on board, and that's why we've been working so closely with the regulator to improve our practices." Years of raising safety concerns However, Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) ACT Regional Secretary Maddy Northam said she wasn't surprised to hear about the assaults, because members had been raising safety concerns for years. She said nurses and midwives attempting to provide hospital level care in patients' homes often encountered "really scary situations". "We've had members who have had the front door opened and the patient or a family member may be holding a machete or a knife or an axe or chain," Ms Northam said. "There are firearms present, guns, bows and arrows." CPSU ACT regional secretary Maddy Northam said members were forced into very scary situations during in-home visits. ( ABC News ) She said members' reporting such incidents had not lead to change. "CPSU members at Canberra Health Services have been raising pretty serious safety concerns about home visits for more than two years now," Ms Northam said. Improvement and prohibition notices As part of its assessment of the assaults, WorkSafe issued six improvement notices and one prohibition notice to CHS in March in relation to home visit safety protocols. These notices list changes and improvements CHS are required to make under the Work Health and Safety Act. Union representatives say health staff face dangerous situations when attempting to provide in-home healthcare. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss ) WorkSafe found the risk assessments used for home visits were "ineffective", the alarm systems "unsafe" and required a series of changes in order to better protect staff. CHS has now undergone those mandatory changes and the safety notices have been lifted. A CHS spokesperson said some of the actions taken included strengthening the risk assessment tool, mandatory training for staff before a home visit and ensuring staff have a duress device and that their manager always knew where they were. However, Ms Northam said CPSU members felt let down. " Our members are really disappointed that it took an unprecedented prohibition notice from WorkSafe to actually get CHS to listen. " 'Almost impossible to foresee' Mr Peffer said safety issues had been raised over the past few years but denied it was the WorkSafe notice that finally brought about action. "I acknowledge that these have been issues that have been raised throughout the years, and to be fair to the to many of our teams, they have adjusted their processes," he said. "Occupational violence is something we've been working on for a long time, for many years. It didn't start when these incidents occurred, and certainly it won't end tomorrow. "Some of the situations where assaults have occurred it is almost impossible to foresee that that would have happened." In 2024 there were six assaults on nurses and allied health workers in the home care programs run by CHS. More broadly, there were 43 instances of occupation violence across CHS services. In March Mr Peffer, in a regular update to staff, wrote: "Team, that's 43 too many. As an organisation we've let our team members down — and for that I am deeply sorry." More than sorry Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT Branch secretary Carlyn Fidow said its members had also raised safety concerns several times over many years. ANMF ACT branch secretary Carlyn Fidow says she "wasn't surprised" to hear about the four assaults after raising concerns multiple times. ( ABC News: Mark Moore ) She said an apology wasn't enough. "Nurses and midwives — they don't want to hear apologies for it after the fact," Ms Fidow said. "They want to see some action. They want to know that their employer is going to do something to address the assaults in a timely manner. "Over many years, we have continued to raise safety concerns which lead to potential risk of assaults. "It shouldn't take a WorkSafe notice to get some action."

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

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‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

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‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

‘Stop the show, there's a man dying': As three women struggled to save him, one item could have changed the outcome

WorkSafe ACT investigation finds life-threatening work conditions for nurses after ‘serious' assaults

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