Broadway, Ms R.A.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health questions about the death of Rita Ann Broadway.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Rita Ann Broadway tragically died on 2 January 2015 from a urinary tract infection. Ms Broadway received a long-term indwelling catheter for incontinence in late 2013. On 13 different occasions between November 2013 and December 2014 her catheter was replaced with the assistance of the RDNS. During this same period Ms Broadway had the SA Ambulance Service change her catheter also. So, it is fair to say she was aware of the significance of her health situation and when it was necessary to ask for help.

Ms Broadway attended Modbury public hospital on 31 December 2014, complaining of increased urine output, smell and pain. The nurse's initial assessment was of a possible urinary tract infection, yet the doctors failed to consider a possible UTI, and her requests for her catheter to be changed were denied. Ms Broadway was given several painkillers and analgesics and discharged approximately 4½ hours later, the same day.

Professor Kelly, an expert witness in the Coroner's investigation, gave evidence to the Coroner that Ms Broadway should at minimum have been given antibiotics and her catheter should have been changed and that her death could have been prevented if this was to have occurred. The Coroner agreed with this assessment, giving an 80 per cent to 90 per cent chance of recovery had the catheter been replaced in this particular case. Unfortunately, Ms Broadway died, as I said earlier. Her request to the RDNS to change her catheter was also denied, and as a result she died later that day. My questions for the minister are:

1. What is the initial response of the government in relation to this situation?

2. Is the government going to adopt the protocols for diagnostic criteria for catheter-associated urinary tract infections, as recommended by the Coroner, or at what stage of decision-making are they in that process?

3. What staff education and training is employed or will be employed to ensure that this doesn't recur?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (15:23): Thank you to the honourable member for his question. I am advised that the Coroner, of course, only recently handed down their findings—I think, was it yesterday, from memory—into the circumstances of Ms Rita Broadway's passing. There was one principal recommendation that came through from that Coroner's report. The department is now going through the process of assessing that recommendation and developing a government response to it. It is my hope that that can be done as quickly as it can, and when that occurs I am happy to report back to this place what the government's response is to that recommendation.

In regard to the other components of Hon. Mr Hood's question, I am happy to take that on notice, because the government in conjunction with the department is in the process of developing a response holistically to the Coroner's findings.