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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-08 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:09): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about the Women's and Children's Hospital.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Seasoned clinicians at the Women's and Children's Hospital are concerned about the independence of a so-called independent review into paediatric cardiac surgery services at the Women's and Children's Hospital. That review recommended that South Australian clinicians requiring cardiac surgery should continue to be transferred to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne because such surgery is not available at the Women's and Children's—the only state, I might add, in Australia to not provide such life-saving surgery.

Disturbingly, some doctors have stated publicly that babies and young children have died due to the Women's and Children's Hospital not being able to perform paediatric cardiac surgery and, as I understand it, have even been sanctioned for daring to speak out against this review.

I am reliably advised by medical experts at the Women's and Children's that heart surgery and acute cardiopulmonary treatment can safely and efficiently be performed there instead of sending up to 100 babies and children to Melbourne each year. My questions to the minister are:

1. Are you satisfied with the independence of the independent review, given the concerns of clinicians that its recommendations were predetermined to ensure the status quo remained?

2. Do you, as minister, acknowledge that very sick babies in a prosperous state like South Australia are having to travel interstate for life-saving surgery, and how do you respond to claims that this is nothing more than a cost-cutting exercise?

3. Can you confirm whether any doctors or any other staff have been spoken to about their public comments and at whose direction, and, if that is the case, does it concern you that doctors are being silenced by either the bureaucracy or the government?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (17:12): I thank the honourable member and am glad that, now that we have come to the end of question time, I have a sort of open rein and am limitless in my answer. The freedom has gone to my head.

The PRESIDENT: Please proceed.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In relation to the first question, which is if I am satisfied as to the independence, let's put it this way: there has been no evidence put to me that suggests the review was not independent. I am aware of public claims that there were members of the team of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne who were part of the review team. I specifically sought advice on that claim and I am being assured that was not the case. I am actually very disappointed that public claims were made about the independence of the review that, on the evidence presented to me, are completely baseless.

If I can make a side comment about the honourable member's comment about South Australia being the only state that doesn't provide paediatric cardiac surgery, it goes without saying that Tasmania doesn't provide paediatric cardiac surgery. In terms of whether I acknowledge that patients have to go to Melbourne, I will never diminish the disruption that families with children with heart conditions go through. First of all caring for their child and then the disruption to go to Melbourne I will never underestimate. That is very significant.

The independent review was specifically asking the question on the basis of suggestions from within the hospital that the journey could be avoided by establishing a paediatric cardiac surgery in Adelaide. The conclusion of the review was that we should continue to seek a service through the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, as we have done for 18 years.

In relation to the suggestion that this might be cost cutting, I have spoken to both people who are proponents of the introduction of paediatric cardiac surgery and people who do not support the introduction of paediatric cardiac surgery, and I have been impressed that nobody is talking funding. Everybody is talking about patient care and safety as issue number one. In that regard, I just make the point that it is unlikely to be a cost-saving measure because we don't provide the service now. It is not as though we are cutting a service and we are going to recoup the money from it.

In terms of sanctions, I would hope there would be no leader in the South Australian health system who would be unaware that I do not support the gagging of clinicians. Obviously, there are appropriate channels through which clinicians can raise issues. I am not aware of a clinician being sanctioned in relation to this conversation.

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