PORT AUGUSTA, MEDICAL TRANSFER

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK (15:17): I seek leave to make an explanation before asking the Minister for Environment and Conservation, representing the Minister for Health, a question about medical transfers from Port Augusta.

Leave granted.

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: I have been contacted by the father of a woman who suffered a severe post-partum haemorrhage on Saturday 21 April this year while giving birth to a pre-term baby at Port Augusta Hospital. In addition, the mother suffered an accidental dural puncture during the administration of the epidural anaesthesia.

The following day (Sunday), the mother, who was confined to bed, asked when she would be sent to Adelaide, because she wanted to be with her first-born child. She was told that on Monday a volunteer might be able to transport her in a clinic car to Adelaide. If she wanted to go sooner, they told her she would have to get a bus.

The woman was given her patient transfer notes from Port Augusta Hospital, and she arranged her own travel to Adelaide by bus and then by taxi to the Flinders Medical Centre. Her bleeding continued during this journey, and she had a severe headache.

The woman's father has been told that the reason his daughter was not flown by air ambulance from Port Augusta to Adelaide was that 'for humanitarian reasons at the weekend...would not have been a high priority, and she would have to wait for a week day, due to the reduced number of RFDS air crews available at the weekend'.

At Flinders Medical Centre, the woman's medical condition was considered so severe that she was allowed neither walking nor use of a wheelchair. She was transported around the hospital in a bed due to the dural puncture. Two dural patch procedures were conducted to heal the ruptured dura. My questions are:

1. Given that the RFDS transferred the baby at 10 o'clock on the Saturday night, what time was the baby born?

2. At what time did the RFDS receive the request for retrieval from Port Augusta Hospital? Is it correct that Port Augusta Hospital staff did not notify RFDS earlier because they expected the baby would be stillborn?

3. On what grounds did the RFDS determine this woman's need to travel to Adelaide as being simply humanitarian rather than medical? Why was she not allowed to travel with her baby to Adelaide?

4. Why has no financial recompense been made to the mother for her out-of-pocket costs in transferring herself from Port Augusta to Flinders Medical Centre?

5. In assessing a patient as fit to travel to Adelaide from Port Augusta, is any consideration given to the method of travel?

6. What arrangements are in place for out-of-hours, non-urgent patient transfers from Port Augusta to Adelaide?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health) (15:20): I thank the honourable member for her questions and will refer them to the Minister for Health in another place and bring back a response.