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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-02 Daily Xml
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KNIGHT, PROF. J.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (15:27): I want to draw to the attention of the house that the health minister has today confirmed that the taxpayers of South Australia face the prospect of a multimillion dollar damages claim from Professor John Knight as a result of actions taken by the health minister, as I will explain. This all relates to an unfortunate event on 25 November 2008 when a patient, Ms Vera Allan, aged 81, died at the Flinders Medical Centre after undergoing surgery to replace an aortic valve. She died after the operation in ICU.

On 27 October 2009, the minister came into the house and announced that Professor Knight was to be suspended from his employment at the Flinders Medical Centre by, he said, the Chief Executive Officer of Southern Adelaide Health Service. Presumably, the minister would not have made that statement had it not had his approval and his endorsement. The suspension, he said, related to this tragic death. He went on to say that the matter had been reported to the Coroner's office at the time and that the patient had died within 24 hours of a general anaesthetic.

The Coroner made a finding as to the cause of death in March 2009, the minister said, but did not at that time conduct an inquest. The minister noted, in his address to parliament on that day, that on 16 October 2009 the Coroner indicated that an inquest would be held into the death and that the matter was, at that time, before the Coroner.

He made his statement to the house on 27 October, so he knew on 16 October that the Coroner would be conducting a full inquiry. Yet, he went on in his statement to say not only that Professor Knight would be suspended but that further information had come to light in regard to the case. He said that that information would be passed not only to the Coroner but to the Crown Solicitor's Office—which implies some legal response—and that he would provide that further information to the Medical Board of South Australia, without knowing the full facts, because, as I mentioned and he stated, a full coronial inquiry had only been announced some days before.

The minister said that the Crown Solicitor's Office had engaged a government investigations unit to look at the case, and that the information related to the reporting of the surgery and the patient's death and the appropriate supervision and credentialling of an interstate practitioner who was involved in the surgery. The minister's statement was awash with accusations against Professor Knight and had in effect judged him and condemned him before the Coroner had even conducted his full inquiry.

When a minister comes into the house and names a doctor in the house and indicates that he is sending matters off to the Crown Solicitor and to the Medical Board before he has even established the facts, you put that doctor and yourself as minister in a very invidious position. Of course, we all now know that the subsequent coronial inquiry, tabled in March 2011, completely cleared Professor Knight of any wrongdoing and in fact was highly critical of officers of the Department of Health who were involved in making accusations and raising matters with the minister that were not substantiated by the Coroner.

As a consequence, the professor has, without much in the way of a surprise, lodged proceedings in the relevant court and will be seeking a remedy which, I understand from legal counsel assisting Professor Knight, is likely to be in the order of $5 million. I am advised that costs could be $1.5 million and that they may be awarded against the taxpayer and that considerable costs have already been incurred in the Coroner's Court by both the government and a range of parties—Flinders Medical Centre, health officers and so on—and Professor Knight, all of which may come into play.

The ultimate cost of this entire debacle may be $9 million to $10 million and it may all be paid for by the taxpayer. This is another example of a health minister who is out of control, who is incompetently managing his affairs and who is delivering financial ruin to the health budget and to our health system.

Time expired.

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