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Premier Mark McGowan has been told to check his source of information surrounding the death of Aishwarya Aswath amid a growing dispute with WA’s nurses’ union.
Australian Nurses Federation WA secretary Janet Reah suggested the Premier was being fed false information about what happened inside Perth Children’s Hospital the night seven-year-old Aishwarya died in April 2021.
Only a month after Aishwarya’s death, the Premier declared there was enough staff working in the ED at the time despite evidence from this week’s coronial inquest into the young girl’s death suggesting otherwise.
Mr McGowan even suggested the ED was overstaffed at the time Aishwarya was waiting to be attended to.
“I’m advised ordinarily, on a Saturday, there are 12 doctors on duty at 6pm,” Mr McGowan said at the time.
“On this night in question, there were 13 doctors on this Saturday evening.”
The ANF is now demanding Mr McGowan apologise to nurses for his comments and check the information he was provided.
“I think Mark McGowan needs to look at who’s supplying the information that the department was fully staffed or overstaffed that night. I believe he said it was actually one up on doctors that night,” Ms Janet said.
“He might need to go back to his information sources and ask them, and I do believe that there should be an apology from this government for telling us that everything’s fine.
“And we’re staffed fully, and we’re absolutely not.”
When asked on Sunday if nurses could expect an apology, senior McGowan Government Minister Sue Ellery said she would not provide a “running commentary” on the coronial inquest.
“I think it is important that we let this inquiry, which is an incredibly important one, and which is going canvass all of the issues, to all its work,” Ms Ellery said.
“And then the government has the opportunity to consider the recommendations and the findings that come out of it.
“So we’re not going to be providing a running commentary on the evidence, and in fact, the commentary from others that is made every single day.
“This inquiry needs to conduct its course. We need then to consider the findings and recommendations made out of the inquiry and act on those.”
Ms Ellery’s comments were similar to a statement from the Premier’s office released to The Sunday Times in which Mr McGowan refused to buckle.
Nurses and a doctor working at PCH on the night of Aishwarya’s death told the coronial inquest this week that they were faced with impossible workloads and asked to do several tasks during their shifts.
Nurse Tahnee Vining said she was doing an “impossible job” on the night Aishwarya died, at times feeling she needed to be in four places at once.
Junior doctor Tony Teo, also on duty the night Aishwarya died, told the inquest the shift was busier than usual, compounded by several staff calling in sick.
