A Melbourne psychiatrist of more than 20 years experience has described feeling "humiliated" and "devastated" after she was abruptly escorted from her ward round at Newcastle's Calvary Mater hospital on Friday morning where she had been working as a locum.
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Dr Helen Schultz had been assigned her first Newcastle posting to the Mater, beginning on May 17, where she was treating patients with severe and complex mental illnesses. Her assignment was for a two-week stint, during which time she returned home to Melbourne once on May 21 to attend a football game, before arriving back in Newcastle on May 23, but stressed that she had not visited any of Victoria's identified exposure sites, has not shown any symptoms of COVID-19, and has already received one dose of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine.
During her last day of placement at the Mater on Friday, and after working at the hospital for the preceding week, she declared that she had been in Victoria within the past 14 days and said that is when staff at the hospital "seemed to start to panic".
"I declared that I had been in Victoria because I'm a Melburnian," Dr Schultz told the Newcastle Herald. "Even if I had not come back [to Victoria on May 21], I still would have been in Victoria in the last 14 days [as I had only been] in Newcastle for 12 days."
Victoria entered a snap seven-day lockdown on Thursday night to stem an outbreak that has since been linked to a hotel quarantine breach in South Australia. There were 39 active cases in the state as of Saturday evening, according to Victoria Health and Human Services.
Dr Schultz said that she had gone through a regular screening process each morning of her placement at the Mater, prior to undertaking her duties, and that she had been stringently following developments in the Victoria outbreak, its associated exposure sites, and relevant public health orders. But, after declaring she had been in that state within the past fortnight, she said staff at the hospital "didn't seem to believe" that she had not contravened public health orders.
At around 10.30am Friday, she said she was approached by a Nurse Unit Manager at the hospital who at first instructed her to put on a face mask, which she did, and then told her to leave immediately.
"He said, 'Actually, how about you get out now'," Dr Schultz said, and claims that the manager then followed her to the nurses station where she says she made attempts to explain the situation.
"I tried to go to the nurses station to explain what had happened because I had a ward round to do with people with severe and complex mental illness, who are involuntary," Dr Schultz said, "And [the manager] said, 'no, you need to get out now'.
"He sent me around to the ED (emergency department) for my suitcase and told me to get in the queue for a COVID test. I realised that if I did that, I would not be able to fly home because I would have to wait for the result.
"There was absolutely no reason to have a COVID test. I hadn't done anything wrong. I had followed the law.
And then he came back and said 'Don't worry about the COVID test, just leave'. He threw me out on the street."
In a statement on Saturday, Hunter New England Mental Health Services executive director, Dr Brendan Flynn apologised to Dr Schultz "for the embarrassment and distress we have caused her" and confirmed that a senior executive from the service had phoned Dr Schultz on Friday to apologise and thank her for her work.
But Dr Schultz said her primary concern at the time was for her patients and that, as a result of the ordeal, she was unable to complete a clinical handover before she was told to leave the hospital.
"It's really hitting me today," she said, "I just can't believe someone could treat someone like that. I was so humiliated, and it was in front of all of my team."
"I was working in the mental health ICU - the sickest of the sick. On Fridays, we need to assess every [patient] to see if they can move to the open ward because we need those ICU (intensive care unit) beds.
"So, if there is anyone that can move to a lower level of observation, we try to do all of that on a Friday to make sure that those beds are available for the weekend. And it was my last day, so I had to hand over to a new consultant.
"There were so many things going on in my mind. It was the busiest day of the rotation because you have been caring for these people for two weeks - one of them I had for the whole two weeks - and I couldn't tell anyone what I had done."
Dr Flynn insisted, however, that there was no impact on clinical care as a result of the incident, and that alternative consultant psychiatrist cover arrangements were put in place immediately for the unit.
"With the evolving COVID-19 situation in Victoria, we all aim to ensure our patients, staff and the community stay safe and protected from the virus," Dr Flynn said.
But Dr Schultz maintains that, aside from the earlier phone call, she has had no contact from Hunter New England Health with regard to her patient and clinical handover.
She returned home to Melbourne on Friday afternoon, and said she has assignments in regional Victoria in the next week.
"I'm devastated," she said, "I really enjoy that work and I do feel like I'm making a difference when I do it because people are grateful that you are there, and that they have someone who can actually look after them when they are sick.
"I have been a psychiatrist for 12 years, and worked in psychiatry for 20 years, and do a lot of work with doctor advocacy. I really care about how doctors are treated.
"I do have roles coming up later in year in Wollongong, but I don't know how I feel about all that now.
"I enjoy that part of the work, seeing Australia and working in regional areas that are very short-staffed, but I don't know whether I can feel secure that I can get home, or that I won't be treated like that again."
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