Royal Adelaide Hospital Gynaecological Services

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health a question about the new RAH.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I have received correspondence and have been in discussion with a highly respected professor of medicine regarding an issue at the new RAH, which I did raise with the council on 6 October, requesting that questions be put to an officer of the health department. I want to place on the record in my question and for background to the minister the following from the email:

There is no provision for treating patients with common gynaecological problems at the new RAH. This is a major deficiency and must be rectified. A case presenting to the hospital a few nights ago highlights how dangerous this can be. A woman was seen in the RAH ED with an acute gynaecological problem. She needed surgery but this was not possible at the RAH because of a lack of suitable instruments and medications. The Women's and Children's Hospital was full, so the RAH staff rang the duty doctor at the Flinders Medical Centre who agreed to accept the admission. An ambulance was ordered by the RAH intensive care unit at 3am. At around 4am, the Flinders Medical Centre doctor rang the new RAH to say the patient hadn't arrived.

The patient finally arrived by ambulance at the Flinders Medical Centre at 6.40am, a delay of three hours and 40 minutes. After being admitted and assessed, the patient was taken to theatres to have the gynaecological procedure performed. The delay in this patient receiving appropriate treatment for an acute condition was at least five hours.

SA Health have told the media now on two occasions that this story is untrue. Either the spokesperson has been misinformed or was telling a deliberate untruth. I took great pains in verifying the facts of this case by contacting the doctors at FMC who were involved in the patient's care. It was one of these doctors who arranged the admission and treated the patient when she arrived at Flinders Medical Centre.

There are two important issues here. One is the inability of the RAH to treat an acute but common condition or indeed to manage any general gynaecological conditions. The second is the attempt to cover up by SA Health of the serious deficiencies in this patient's care.

Warren Jones

Professor of Medicine

My questions therefore to the minister, from this highly respected professor, are:

1. Is there an inability of the RAH to treat an acute but common condition or indeed manage any general gynaecological conditions?

2. Given that the select committee and the parliament gave your public servant, minister, over a week's notice before the questioning occurred on 6 October, why did the public servant then say that they had to take it on notice and investigate? We had given that public servant plenty of time to investigate, so my second question to the minister is: is there an attempted cover-up here regarding serious deficiencies in this patient's care?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (15:07): Let me thank the Hon. Mr Brokenshire for his important question. I am sure the honourable member will appreciate that I am not in a position or at liberty to go into specific patient matters due to appropriate confidentiality and also arrangements that are necessary to maintain a patient's privacy. However, I am able to hopefully address the more general components of the honourable member's question regarding gynaecological services in and around the RAH.

My advice is that inpatient, general gynaecological services are mainly provided at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and that inpatient gynaecological oncology services are to be provided at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Both emergency and elective services are provided in line with the above allocation.

Emergency gynaecological cases presenting to the RAH, where not life-threatening, are routinely transferred to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital for care. A consultative gynaecological service is available to all Central Adelaide Local Health Network patients and clinical units as required, and outreach services are also provided at key regional centres.

Outpatient services, I am advised, for gynaecological services are provided across both The QEH and the RAH, and the gynaecological service is accredited as a training facility by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I appreciate that the honourable member has raised his question in the context of a report regarding a specific case. I am not in a position to be able to comment on that, as I am sure the honourable member will appreciate.