A long-serving hospital staffer was allegedly fired for taking a “sneaky peek” at the medical records of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.
Mr Andrews, 53, was admitted to Monash Clayton Hospital in southeast Melbourne late last year after a reported neurological episode that left him debilitated. It was previously reported he was “in a very bad way” and had had issues with his movement and speech, with his condition understood to be improving under an intensive, ongoing rehabilitation program.
A Monash Clayton employee of 14 years, a 59-year-old woman referred to as Michelle to protect her identity, said she accessed Mr Andrews’ records after hearing on the radio on December 18 that a “high-profile person” had been admitted to the hospital.
“I thought, that can’t be right – why Clayton? So I looked it up,” Michelle said. “I pressed the restricted access button, had a quick skim … and that was it.”
She insisted she “didn’t read anything, didn’t tell a soul”. She said accessing information “for lawyers and patients is something that “everyone” who works at the hospital does”.
“I just did the wrong thing, like I pressed on the restricted access button and had a look,” she said. “But I just clicked through it and just went, ‘Oh, OK, whatever’.”
Michelle said she “didn’t realise that the punishment was so severe” for what she described as merely a “sneaky peek”. She also said, “I did say I didn’t think of him as a high-profile person. I just thought of him as a patient being admitted to Monash and that’s probably what got me.”
Michelle said she was put on notice before Christmas while an internal investigation was conducted, and was let go from her position in January.
She said her managers acted “like I’d committed a crime … This has been 14 years and I’ve never had a warning. I’ve never done anything wrong”. She also described the process as punitive, saying, “The way it was done was so harsh and they locked me out of the employee hub online so I couldn’t get into any of my emails anymore,” and adding, “I’ve just felt so defeated because I’m such a fighter. But there’s nothing I can do.”
A Monash Health spokesperson said the service could not provide specific details of the dismissal “due to our ongoing obligations of confidentiality to all employees and patients”. The spokesperson added: “Monash Health treats its obligations to protect the confidentiality of personal information with the utmost seriousness.”
Michelle claimed the Victorian Health Workers Union “did absolutely nothing” to help her contest her dismissal “because of this person being so high-profile”. She also said she didn’t think she was the only staffer to be fired over the incident.
Mr Andrews has kept a low profile since his abrupt resignation from Victoria’s top job in September 2023. Concern about his wellbeing intensified after he did not publicly acknowledge the passing of former senior adviser Tim Picton, who died on January 19, a month after an alleged nightclub attack.
Information about Mr Andrews’ hospitalisation before Christmas was tightly controlled, with one senior Spring Street source comparing the lockdown to the secrecy surrounding former Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher’s condition after his ski accident.
Mr Andrews was previously hospitalised in 2021 after slipping on steps at a holiday house in Sorrento, crushing his back, breaking ribs and suffering respiratory failure. He later said he feared he was “going to die” in the minutes after, and spent four months in intensive rehabilitation to recover.