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WA hospitals have been savaged by the corruption watchdog for lax controls over powerful and addictive narcotics that continue to go missing despite repeated warnings to improve security.
The Corruption and Crime Commission released a report yesterday on the management of schedule 8 controlled drugs — the fourth official investigation of its kind in six years.
It returned to the subject after Fiona Stanley Hospital pharmacist Matthew Foster was charged last February with stealing pain relievers to fuel an addiction he developed after a family tragedy. He was convicted of stealing almost 18 grams of hydromorphone and almost 12 grams of oxycodone — both schedule 8 drugs.
Matthew Foster
Yesterday’s report concluded “Mr Foster alone” was responsible for his actions and levelling a misconduct opinion against him would be “pointless” after his conviction, but it heavily criticised WA Health processes that allowed the offending to go undetected for 14 months.
Despite pharmaceutical security being scrutinised by the Coroner in 2013, the Auditor-General in 2012 and the CCC in 2011, yesterday’s report said the Foster case raised “concerns about the broader serious misconduct and corruption risks at public hospitals”.
It found some WA Health records required by legislation to be presented on demand were missing when the CCC asked for them, which “inhibited the investigation and prosecution processes”.
Nor had statutory declarations been made about most missing records, despite a legal requirement to do so.
Fiona Stanley Hospital.Picture: AAPIMAGE
Mr Foster, the University of WA’s 2008 pharmacy student of the year, was hired soon after his graduation. He was an intern at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital before going to FSH as a senior pharmacist in October 2014.
“But he had a dark secret, he came to FSH highly addicted to a potent opioid drug that pharmacists liken to heroin — hydromorphone,” the report said.
“What looked like legitimate supplies of Schedule 8 drugs from hospital pharmacies to wards and units, were in fact something more sinister.”
The CCC reported that on at least 130 occasions between December 2014 and February last year Mr Foster took Schedule 8 drugs at FSH without authorisation.
The watchdog recommended hospitals enhance monitoring of after-hours access to each pharmacy safe, consider mandatory audits for all after-hours dispensation and prohibit access by a solitary employee outside ordinary business hours.
A WA Health spokeswoman said it had initiated the investigation of Mr Foster.
“The WA health system has already reviewed and strengthened existing systems for managing these medicines across the WA public hospital system, and will examine and respond to all recommendations in the final report,” she said.