Disgraced HNEH nurse Richard Whittle guilty of sexual harrassment and bullying

The Health Care Complaints Commission also found that Mr Whittle bullied and intimidated colleagues, and breached conditions placed on his registration before he was employed in the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD).

Mr Whittle, who was first registered as a nurse in 1978, first came to the attention of the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council in November 2018, when he moved to NSW from Tasmania bringing with him conditions placed on his registration. He came to work at HNELHD in 2017. He was suspended over allegations of misconduct just three years later, in July, 2020, and sacked in September.

Mr Whittle's misconduct included making inappropriate comments to younger, female nurses, such as, "Well, after the date I could just take you back and sedate ya", and another comment in which he suggested a colleague "surrogate" for him if he gave her $10,000.

He put his hand on a colleague in an unprofessional way, and made other comments such as "I wouldn't mind having a piece of that". In another incident, he made racist remarks about a 30-year-old female nurse, criticising her abilities because she was from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.

She could work at the hospital for two days and spend the other three cleaning his house as his maid, and he would let her and her daughter live in his dog's kennel, he said, according to details contained in the Tribunal's published decision.

The tribunal described Mr Whittle's conduct towards nursing colleagues as "completely unwarranted and unacceptable", and the physical conduct on a female colleague was "very serious misconduct".

He also breached some of 19 conditions placed on his nursing registration, including that he only work while supervised, and failed to complete more than 50 mentoring sessions, as directed, and to undertake further education.

The breaches were serious, occurred over a period of time, and involved "significant failures" to improve his performance through supervision and mentoring, the tribunal found.

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