PATIENT MEDICAL COSTS

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:14): My question again is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister ensure that medication and medical costs are paid to a patient who went to a public hospital to have a baby and left with her leg amputated?

Members interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: You might think it's funny, but she doesn't.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms CHAPMAN: On 13 March, I wrote to the minister requesting that he at least meet the medical costs for a patient who attended the Women's and Children's Hospital to have her baby in January this year. She was subsequently transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital after the birth of her baby and, after a series of medical mishaps, her leg was poisoned requiring emergency amputation.

She is currently having rehabilitation and will have future prosthesis costs. The family has been left with medication costs of $130 a week, with no insurance, no Centrelink benefit and a mortgage to pay. The father, I have advised the minister, has had to reduce his employment to support his wife and infant child and so far, after these weeks, the only thing we have received from the minister is a letter of acknowledgement.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:16): As the member would know, the family is very reluctant for these matters to be brought into the public arena.

Ms Chapman: I've spoken today because you won't answer.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition's standards in this place are just appalling.

Ms Chapman: That's why I wrote to you.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, I am aware of your letter to me. I was aware of the case anyway. I think some of the claims you make in relation to this, if you were to say them outside, might be defamatory, so I caution you on how you describe this set of circumstances.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Doctors who might have been involved. She used language about what she described as the medical treatment of this person. This is a very sad case, involving a lot of circumstances which I will not go through to the house, unless somebody asks me about them and then I will. But I know the family is very keen to have this matter dealt with in a private and respectful way.

When I received the deputy leader's letter in relation to this family I asked a senior person in my office to ring the family and to go through the issues with them and, as far as I am aware, we undertook to provide whatever assistance was necessary to help with the medical costs. As I understood it at the time, the woman in question was in fact in a health facility (a hospital, I think) and the medical costs, of course, were paid by us. But I will once again check the details. I understood the matter had been sorted out with the family. If it has not been, I will make sure that it is.