Hello. Russell Broadbent here, Member for Monash.
I was recently contacted by a number of medical doctors who have been suspended from practice or had their employment terminated during the covid years.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d expect that if a doctor was side-lined from employment, then it would be for something extremely serious which threatened their ability to provide safe medical care.
But as I’ve listened to these stories, I’ve become increasingly alarmed.
The reasons given for suspension or termination seem incredibly unjust.
Not only that - many of these cases have gone on for months and months, even years, with no resolution.
This terrible situation is impacting our healthcare system and medical profession.
Let me tell you about Beverley, an anaesthetist with over 40 years’ experience.
Beverley was bullied and harassed for months to take the Covid injections despite having a valid exemption.
She was also subject to an internal Human Resources investigation (which she won!) and multiple attempts to reveal her vaccination history.
When the mandates came into effect in October 2021, Beverley was forbidden from entering her workplace.
In December 2022, after her exemption expired, Beverley’s employment was terminated.
Beverley has worked in both private and public hospitals all her life, and says the reason given for the termination of her employment was ‘serious misconduct’ for not sharing her vaccination history.
You would think that after four decades of loyal service to healthcare, her employer would reach out.
But Beverley says at no point was she invited to meet face to face with hospital administration.
Despite efforts to reach out to her former employer requesting a reversal of the decision, Beverley has heard nothing and remains unemployed.
I am appalled and distressed by this story, and others like them, and wonder what this means for the future of our healthcare system.
Is this any way to treat our medical profession? We need to have all hands on deck as our hospitals struggle to care for the sick.
This is no time for side-lining valuable doctors.
And that’s justice, as I see it.
