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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-21 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Health Network Cochlear Implant Program

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What does the minister say to Dale and Lauren? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: Dale and Lauren Smedley's son, Logan, was one of the children whose cochlear implant was incorrectly programmed. Dale said, and I quote:

As a result of the hospital's failure to turn up Logan's cochlear implants…we believe he's severely delayed in his hearing and his speech and for our family, we just don't want to see any other family have to go through that, what we've had to go through.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:53): To that family and to all the other families involved in this case, as I said in my ministerial statement, I share, and I think all South Australians and all members of this house would share, the absolute despair I think all of us could imagine if our own children were going through such a situation. I think that's why it is incumbent on us to make sure that we identify how this was allowed to happen over so many years at the hospital and why it was not picked up over the course of at least the last five years, and to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I think all of us, whether you have children or not, can imagine how difficult it would be to find out that news, to go through this situation where you believed that something had been installed that was correctly set that was providing that care for your child, and then to be informed that it hadn't been set appropriately to begin with and that your child may have had a different outcome if that had been set better many years ago.

I think for everybody in this house, our sympathies and our thoughts will be with those families. That's why we are determined to make sure that this doesn't happen again, that systems are improved, and that the appropriate care can be provided to those children who have been affected by this issue.

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