BY CHARLIE PROUDLOCK
Whistleblowers have come forth to publicly allege the downplaying of serious risks at Waratah's Calvary Mater Hospital.
As part of a parliamentary inquiry into the Mater's management, it's been reported workers who flagged safety and health risks were threatened or pushed out of their jobs as a result.
The hospital is run under a public-private partnership between Novacare and NSW Health, with Honeywell the company in charge of maintenance.
In their submission to the inquiry into the hospital's operations, the Health Services Union (HSU) has included staff reports of a "sweep it under the rug" culture from Honeywell and upper management.
The HSU is using its submission to call for a full review of the contract compliance, as well as greater accountability and transparency among the state's health infrastructure.
Former Mater employee Luke Carroll said he experienced intimidation first-hand after writing various technical reports.
"I personally was pulled into rooms for impromptu meetings after writing various reports or technical positions on the maintenance or serviceability of certain equipment," he said.
"I was screamed at to change my position and essentially coerced into following the narrative Novacare and Honeywell were putting back to the facility."
Mr Carroll went further to add the facility's culture of altering and destroying documents was "common knowledge" amongst staff.
"If you left stuff on your desk, it'd go missing," he said.
"It was common knowledge within the Honeywell Facilities team and various parts of site that the mould testing regime was essentially being falsified.
"For lack of a better term, to produce artificially low results in problem areas."
Mater Hematologist Dr Katherine Rankin echoed Mr Carroll's sentiment in speaking about a general lack of accountability across the parties involved.
"Accountability has been diffused across a labyrinth of entities, Calvary, NovaCare, Honeywell, and the Ministry, leading to a situation where responsibility for safety has been repeatedly shifted due to contractual ambiguity," she said.
"As a consequence of this, there has been an 11-month delay in getting hazardous mould remediation work commenced."
