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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-06-07 Daily Xml
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Chemotherapy Treatment Error

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:07): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: This week, the state government, through SAICORP, has made offers of compensation to patients and families who are impacted by chemotherapy underdosing during treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia. We have advised patients and their families to seek independent advice if they wish to do so, for which the state government will cover the cost. Over the past month, we have offered other support for the patients and their families. Patients have been offered dedicated care coordinators to liaise between patients and treatment teams and to provide a central point for coordinating patients' needs for health, emotional, social or logistical support.

Where possible, streamlined treatment has been provided, including pre-booking of regular infusions to eliminate unnecessary delays and establishing emergency department alerts. Additional individualised support was also offered for patients and families, including counselling, transport assistance to medical appointments and occupational therapy at home. As the house is aware, eight clinicians have been referred to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency as a result of the independent Villis Marshall review into this matter, with SA Health also conducting a further internal investigation into the issue. These reviews are ongoing.

As I have said before, this has been a serious failure in clinical governance. Patients need to feel safe when they are being treated in our health system. The government will now look at how we manage cases involving people who may be suffering from a terminal illness or who have a limited time to live so that in the future their cases can be expedited. This has been an incredibly distressing event for the patients and their families. We hope that this substantial offer will assist the patients and their families to help deal with the underdosing and the unacceptable chain of events that followed.

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