Nurses had tried to raise the alarm about a patient before he attacked and killed a former police officer at a hospital on the Gold Coast.
Kevin Farr was a father and a decorated police officer.
He was diagnosed with dementia and admitted into a specialist ward at Robina Hospital in 2023, when he was killed by another patient while in his room.
His family believe he would still be alive today if proper procedures had been put in place.
“I firmly believe that if proper procedures had been followed from the beginning and had been in place to be followed, then Kevin would not have died the way he did,” his former wife Christine Hawke told 9News.
Queensland Health sources have told 9News there have always been questions about how the patient who killed Farr was able to get into his room, and whether medication and supervision were appropriate.
An internal investigation into his death has found that nurses had raised concerns about the man who killed Farr.
The report said that the “patient did not receive a medical review or medical progress note entry for 10-days, and on a different occasion, eight days, despite repeated behavioural crisis and escalations by nursing staff”.
It also found the Gold Coast Health Service had “a lack of specific models of care, treatment pathways and appropriately designed clinical settings … leading to ineffective and inadequate management of patients”.
According to the report, this had “directly impacted the outcomes of the reviewed patients”.
Farr’s family said they were unaware of issues inside the hospital until they were contacted by 9News. They then received the investigation findings.
“I was actually horrified, but I felt that my concerns from the beginning were quite justified,” Hawke said.
“I was extremely disappointed that from the very beginning, we’d been lied to. I think trying to cover up what was obviously something that they were responsible for.”
Farr’s family said they have not had a briefing or apology from hospital bosses.
“Hopefully, in the future, something can be done, but I don’t want it to just be swept under the rug. It needs to be brought out,” Hawke said.
The Gold Coast Health Service said in a statement that it is following the review’s recommendations.
