industry & reform
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The hospital itself was consistently one of the worst performing in the nation , and you touched on the idea that maybe a lot of times complaints were made that were swept under the carpet . What does this say about the healthcare system in Tasmania ? It ’ s been put best to me by sources recently for upcoming episodes that it ’ s a fight for resources , and it ’ s astounding when you hear that phrase ‘ follow the money ’, how relevant that is in so many stories , even criminal ones .
So when you look at the case , I ’ m starting to see patterns around money , I ’ m starting to see patterns around entitlement for those who perhaps toe the line in a way that suits certain people . It ’ s all very hierarchical and it seems very political . I ’ ve certainly seen a lot of accounts that both the Launceston General Hospital and the Royal Hobart are very political places to be . And I have a lot of family members that are doctors and nurses and things , and all hospitals are political , as your audience will know . This all plays into it .
But when that culture becomes toxic , which is what I suspect and certainly what I hear from dozens and dozens of sources , you start to create environments where predators can thrive at the very worst end of it . But at the very other end , just a lot of bullying and a lot of young staff in particular not being believed , their complaints not being upheld , and I would say it ’ s a slippery slope .
I don ’ t want to extrapolate too much or go too far beyond my pay grade , but the fact that this happened is a pretty damning indictment on the culture . And then when I start to look at some of the peripheral issues around it , and some of the different roads I ’ m going down , it isn ’ t good . It doesn ’ t look good .
Nurses who worked alongside Jim for a long time will be feeling guilt , but also they ’ re mourning the loss of someone who was a friend and a colleague . I would imagine morale is really low at the hospital for the nursing staff . He ’ s not allowed to be talked about anymore . There ’ s no aftercare for the nurses left behind . It ’ s pretty devastating . And I know it ’ s not my place to take responsibility for it , but in a way I do , because it ’ s just been such a profound trauma . First , the realisation that Jim was brought to the hospital and
18 | nursingreview . com . au died in their intensive care ward at the LGH , that was one trauma . The next was finding out what he was . And then a year later , the story that broke on the podcast that was re-traumatising them again . And then in some cases it is genuinely safe to say , a lot of them didn ’ t know .
They certainly have known since last year , but they didn ’ t know what Jim was and they lost a friend twice , as you said . I ’ m pretty heartbroken when I hear about how it ’ s been dealt with in the earliest stages . And I know that ’ s improving really rapidly with the public scrutiny , and I ’ m really grateful that the public has been so fabulous and the local media in Tasmania is amazing in holding the health minister and the Health Department in particular to account over some of these issues , because we need to ensure that these nurses are protected in particular , because they are doing such an important job .
And the biggest tragedy of this would be a community , which I ’ m really scared is actually already happening , that doesn ’ t trust taking their child in when they ’ re sick . This is the main local hospital for a town that doesn ’ t have an alternative .
Have parents who had children in the hospital during Jim ’ s long tenure been notified ? They have now by virtue of the press coverage , but I ’ ll be frank , there wasn ’ t community consultation before that . Parliament wasn ’ t notified before that . They had a year . That ’ s actually been brought up by the Labor and Greens parties as well . Why wasn ’ t there any kind of community consultation for those many , many parents and families and why on earth did it take a podcast and newspaper headlines to make that happen ?
I know that in the case of the child exploitation material , that those families have been notified , there ’ s certainly been a statement that ’ s been released by various departments . I have no reason to believe that ’ s not true . I had so many families come to me via texts , emails , calls , sobbing down the phone rightly beside themselves , because they had no idea and they found out in the press , and they were asking me : “ Do you know if he hurt my daughter ?” And I could never answer .
It ’ s a terrible thing to have the community find out that way , because this is thousands and thousands of children that were exposed to him . And I don ’ t want to catastrophise . Do I think all of them were harmed ? No , not at all . But even within the anecdotes that some were telling me , my heart sank and I ’ m not qualified to counsel and certainly not privy to what actually happened in those moments when the child was in care , but it ’ s devastating and it seems to be that he was prolific in being a predator .
In your opinion , what ’ s the ideal outcome now that this has been brought to light ? I go back to what the Nursing Union said : “ Sunlight is the best disinfectant .” And I feel that way and that ’ s obviously why we do the job we do , because we ’ re telling these stories . But families tell me , and former patients , that they want a meaningful apology . One of the recommendations from the Australia-wide Royal Commission into institutional responses to childhood sexual abuse was an apology for an entire generation that had their childhood stolen from them .
And I know that ’ s something that people want . I think that would be important . They want a continuation of the redress scheme , which already exists down there , but certainly more streamlined processes . Redress can take years and there ’ s a lot of faffing with documents .
Whether it ’ s a sinister reason or not , you shouldn ’ t have trouble getting your own records and go to great expense in having to hire a lawyer and get out of pocket to find out what happened to you when you were a child . It ’ s just not on . So there ’ s a few red tape things that need to be ironed over , but acknowledgement , apology , redress where it ’ s due and asked for , I think that ’ s the best we can hope for .
The most important thing that they ’ ve all said to me – whether it be parliamentarians , anybody who ’ s spoken to me , survivors – they don ’ t want this to happen to anyone else . And just by doing this interview , just by people listening , the pressure that I have already seen – I ’ ve already seen the fruits of that pressure when you have a big audience and an engaged audience , and everybody is doing their bit in this and making sure this doesn ’ t happen again . ■
The Nurse is available on Apple Podcasts , the Spotify app and via Google .
Camille can be contacted at : thenursepodcast @ protonmail . com .