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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-11 Daily Xml
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Hospital Services

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:14): I rise today to talk about the case of Mrs Beverly Sawlwin. Beverly is a 78-year-old lady who lives by herself in Modbury Heights. She has had problems with cataracts for many years and had treatment successfully on one eye at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital over a very long period of time. Not long after that successful treatment, though, her other eye started to deteriorate as well.

She commenced treatment on that eye at what is now the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. Unfortunately, her eyesight became so bad that she felt she could no longer travel safely from Modbury Heights to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. She did not drive and did not feel she could catch public transport safely, so she did the logical and sensible thing and requested a referral to her local hospital, Modbury Hospital.

When she went to the ophthalmology unit at Modbury Hospital, Beverly was told that she would have to wait up to eight years for an appointment. That would make Beverly around 87 years of age before she could get treatment for her eye. Just to provide a bit of context, Beverly's eyesight is so bad now that when I visited her home and asked her to fill in an authority to act form so I could make representations on her behalf to the Minister for Health, she asked me to take her pen and place it on the dotted line so she knew where to sign because she could not read the words in front of her.

Those representations were made to the minister on 14 May. On 29 May, Channel 9 ran a story on Beverly's case, which precipitated a flurry of activity from the minister's office. I think we have already learned from other cases in our system recently—sad cases—that this is often what is required to get action from this minister. Members in here might recall the tragic case of Mr Claus Burg, who was incorrectly diagnosed at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital some years ago as not having stomach cancer. Unfortunately, the radiologist who put together the report did not include in the conclusion of the report the key finding about the lining of Mr Burg's stomach thickening. The oncologist who read that report did not read the body and only read the conclusion.

Because of that, some time later, after Mr Burg had suffered some pretty dramatic weight loss, he attended the Lyell McEwin Hospital, which was his local hospital. He was informed that he had stomach cancer, that it had progressed to a stage so severe that the only treatment options available to him were palliative and that he would not have long to live. Mr Burg wrote to the minister about what had happened and received no reply. In desperation, he sought my assistance, and I, too, wrote a letter to Mr Wade on 5 April this year. On 24 April, 8 May, 14 May, 21 May, 23 May and 27 May, my office followed up with Mr Wade's office asking where our response was.

Eventually, Mr Burg became so frustrated that he asked to speak to the media about it. With the assistance of Mark Mooney from Channel 7, who ran a series of stories on the case, all of a sudden letters were couriered to their home in Brahma Lodge. Mr Burg is now in the final stages of legal action that he quite rightly took against the government for the mistakes made that will ultimately cost him his life. I digress, although only to highlight the stubbornness of the minister's office and the recurring need to involve the media to get something done.

The flurry of activity that I referred to in the case of Beverly quickly resulted in her having an appointment to have her eyes checked. Unfortunately, the appointment that was made was at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. A very upset and frustrated Beverly had to explain that the reason she had ceased treatment at that hospital in the first place was that her eyesight was so bad she could not get there. The reason she asked for a referral was so that she could get to her local hospital to get treatment safely.

That was approximately 12 weeks ago. Since then, all Beverly has had is contact from a person advising her that she is back on the waiting list and that she will have an appointment on a date still undisclosed. This is nothing short of pathetic. If this minister cannot even get an ophthalmology appointment for a near-blind 78 year old, then he has failed at his job. What excuse can there possibly be? It can really only be one of two things: either he has no influence whatsoever over his own department, or he really does not care about the plight of Beverly.

One of the fundamental characteristics of our society we always proudly point to as something that sets us apart from other countries is an affordable healthcare system that ensures that all Australians, regardless of their means or where they live, can get the basic care they need. This system has failed Beverly. If minister Wade in the other place cannot, for whatever reason, get one elderly person an appointment to have her eyes fixed, then it is time to step aside and have someone else have a go at the health portfolio.

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