NSW government apologises

The NSW government has apologised for the distress caused to a Jewish woman injured in the Bondi Beach terror attack who had her name changed without consent while receiving treatment at Liverpool Hospital.

Premier Chris Minns and health minister Ryan Park responded to the controversy at a press conference after Sky News broke the story that Rosalia Shikhverg had her name changed to ‘Karen Jones’ and her Jewish identity concealed while she recovered from head trauma.

Park took responsibility for the incident and admitted failures in managing the situation.

“I’ve been dealing with it, I’d prefer to be honest, it’s my responsibility and it’s my accountability and the Secretary and I have been dealing with this,” Park said.

He explained that staff at the hospital made the decision locally during an extraordinarily challenging time after the attack, maintaining the motivation was patient protection rather than causing distress.

“This was an issue where with great intent from the staff, in a very, pretty hostile and pretty difficult environment, they were trying to make sure that that person was protected in any way, shape or form they could,” he said.

However, Park admitted Shikhverg and her family weren’t adequately consulted about the change and that communication broke down at a crucial juncture.

“Was it communicated with her and her partner well? No, it wasn’t. And we acknowledge that that could have been done better,” he said.

“What we could have done better is communicate with the patient more, better, and fairer and with her family. That’s what should have happened.”

Park announced plans for him and the department secretary to meet with Shikhverg and her family in the coming weeks to address their concerns and explore potential procedural reforms.

“If there is an opportunity to make any changes to the way in which we do that, we will do that,” he said.

Minns conceded the decision to change Shikhverg’s name should have been made with the patient’s approval.

“I just say in relation to this, clearly it was a mistake, the patient should have been asked about the designation, and we will learn from it in the future,” Minns said.

Park described “external pressure” following the attack as the catalyst for the name change, though he clarified no specific threat was aimed at Shikhverg individually.

“The external pressure was that there was a serious terrorism incident that had taken place. It targeted the Jewish community,” he said.

“Decisions were made around that time at a local level that were in the best interest of that patient at the time.”

Asked to clarify whether this pressure was a concrete threat or general anxiety, Park indicated the latter.

“Yes, more general in nature, given what the Jewish community were experiencing at the time,” he said.

Shikhverg has described feeling terrified and profoundly unsettled by the incident, raising questions about whether Jewish Australians can trust their safety in Western Sydney hospitals.

She said she suspects the name change wasn’t motivated by media protection concerns but rather by anxieties about staff security following previous antisemitic episodes in the healthcare system.

These worries stem from last year’s charges against two Bankstown Hospital nurses over alleged threats to kill Israeli patients, which intensified fears among the Jewish community.

“I think that the designation of a different name is reasonably common, but not universal,” Minns said, adding he did not believe other Bondi attack survivors at Liverpool Hospital received similar treatment.