The Victorian Ombudsman has slammed Bendigo Health after it was unable to substantiate claims of patient abuse in its psychiatric ward because of poor record-keeping.
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Ombudsman Deborah Glass investigated allegations made in an annual report for the Public Advocate's Community Visitors program that five patients at Bendigo Health's adult psychiatric inpatient unit had been subjected to excessive force.
Bendigo Health was not named in the report. A spokeswoman for the Ombudsman said its name had been removed because the report intended to reflect a statewide systemic issue rather than a one-off name and shame. However, Bendigo Health confirmed it was the hospital involved.
Patients had complained to the Public Advocate of several incidents, including being dragged by the hair, suffering a shoulder dislocation while being restrained and bruising and grazes.
But Ms Glass said in a report to the State Parliament that she was unable to conclude mistreatment had occurred due to the hospital's "poor record-keeping practices".
"Only one of the five case studies referred to in the 2012-13 Community Visitors report was the subject of an incident report," she said.
The Department of Health requires all agencies to report incidents resulting in harm or "near misses".
Bendigo Health chief executive John Mulder said he accepted that the hospital's record-keeping had not been up to scratch.
"We've worked very hard with our team to improve performance in all areas of our record-keeping," he said.
He said a review by non-profit organisation the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards in August had given Bendigo Health "great comfort" that it had made "significant gains in our documentation".
The report also criticised Bendigo Health's "narrow view" on allowing Community Visitors to access incident reports.
Mr Mulder said the hospital was keen to meet the Public Advocate to clarify its reporting obligations, as well as the kind of information accessible to Community Visitors, to ensure there would not be further "confusion".
Mr Mulder, who chairs the ministerial advisory committee on improving hospital safety and security, said he was "absolutely aware" of incident-reporting requirements, but he admitted failures in hospital staff training.
The health service is yet to introduce a "code grey" security response to incidents of aggression and violence, almost a decade after a ministerial taskforce recommended the government establish a standard response for hospitals.
A Bendigo Health spokeswoman said a code grey response was due to be fully operational early next year.
