On Friday 17 March, the Parramatta Local Court made orders imposing an eight-month Intensive Correction Order to be served in the community and a two-year Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO) against Asmita Pandey.
Magistrate Stephen Burlow sentenced Pandey to the correction order, which is an alternative to prison, and involves an offender doing community work.
Pandey is to perform 30 hours of community service work.
Under the ADVO, Pandey is not allowed to approach or contact any of the three victims in any way, unless the contact is through a lawyer.
She is also prohibited from going into any place where the victims live or work.
On 30 January earlier this year, Pandey had pleaded guilty to assaulting four residents at Estia Health in Epping, NSW.
The police had received a complaint on 26 March 2022 from the aged care facility, regarding the assault of two residents.
After an investigation revealed that two other residents had been assaulted, police arrested Pandey from a residence in Homebush on 30 March 2022.
In a media release dated the day of the arrest, Estia Health had confirmed that Pandey’s employment was terminated following the incidents coming to light.
A representative picture of Estia Health aged care facility. Source: AAP / DANIEL POCKETT
He says that healthcare workers must strictly follow Australian law and order to prevent similar incidents in the future.
“As per my understanding, healthcare workers are given training before employment. At the same time, working with different types of patients might be stressful sometimes, but I think one should be patient,” he told SBS Nepali on Monday.
There are a lot of Nepali people working in the aged care industry, and this is not the first time something like this has happened. I hope this type of incident will not be repeated.Deb Gurung, Vice President, NRNA Australia
Mr Gurung says that NRNA is planning to raise awareness about healthcare laws in an upcoming awareness video campaign.
“We will raise awareness about this kind of issue, but it is also largely common sense,” he said.
We should learn from our mistakes and move forward.Deb Gurung, Vice President, NRNA Australia
Pandey is under an Interim Prohibition Order (IPO) from the Health Care Complaints Commission effective for a period of eight weeks from 9 February 2023.
Under the Health Care Complaints Act 1993, this IPO prevents her from providing any paid or voluntary health services to any member of the public.
The Commission had previously made two eight-week IPOs against Pandey commencing on 9 June 2022, and 19 December 2022.
SBS Nepali has contacted Estia Health for their comments.
