A nurse who refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic has been fired despite the vaccination mandate being lifted.
Casey officially lost her job at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane last week, more than two years after she refused to be injected with the required two doses of the vaccine.
“When the mandate came into effect, my daughter was born, but I was still breastfeeding and I had a few medical issues at the time,” she said.
Health workers in Queensland were ordered to be fully vaccinated against the virus by the state government in 2021.
Thousands of nurses and frontline health workers were put on leave during the height of the pandemic because they denied the attack.
The government revoked the vaccine mandates in 2022 with many workers, including Casey, back and awaiting a decision on their employment status.
Casey finally received the official decision that she would lose her job last week – after two years in limbo.
“It was pretty devastating after kind of a long wait of almost two and a half years,” she shared Nine news.
A Queensland Health spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that staff who were not vaccinated were not complying with a reasonable condition of their employment.
“These employees faced disciplinary action, not for failing to be vaccinated, but for failing to comply with a reasonable condition of their employment,” the spokesman said.
Casey (pictured), who has been a trained nurse for 20 years, was dismissed after the ref
‘We welcome former employees to reapply for positions, and dozens of employees have started work since the mandate was lifted.’
Casey, like many other nurses across the state, is now reconsidering whether she wants to return to her former job.
“I’ve been a nurse for 20 years, so it feels like experience and knowledge wasn’t valued,” she said.
Dissatisfied with how her case had been handled, Casey contacted Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman to have her case reviewed.
“I got a phone call from the minister’s office to say they were going to help and you didn’t have to fight alone,” she said.
“I haven’t heard anything since.”
Minister Fentiman said there was no order preventing fired nurses from re-applying for their old jobs.
“There is no barrier, there is no directive in place,” she said at a news conference last week.
About 1,200 health workers in Queensland were either sacked or resigned from their jobs because they refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
