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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-04 Daily Xml
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Flinders Medical Centre

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about infant safety.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: It was revealed only yesterday that a rare bacteria, serratia marcescens, has been identified in five babies in the Flinders Medical Centre intensive care unit. The first baby was identified two weeks ago. The second baby was identified on the weekend, but public notification was made only yesterday.

In January 2018, it took four days for families to be informed about a baby bottle washer in a hospital that was being incorrectly connected to a descaler. The Hon. Stephen Wade described this at that time as a 'culture of cover-up' and 'outrageous'. The minister said at that time:

It is outrageous that the parents of the infants affected were not notified immediately.

He said that the then minister for health:

…needs to reveal when he first became aware of the bungle and why there was a delay in revealing the mistake…

And:

If I am fortunate enough to be the minister for health in a Marshall Liberal government, I will be demanding an open and transparent approach to mistakes in the health system.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Does the minister still believe that a four-day delay in notifying parents of infants affected is a culture of cover-up and outrageous?

2. Given that the hospital knew of the second infection last weekend and public notification only happened on Wednesday, how does that pass the minister's own standard of open and transparent approach?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:49): The reality is that families were progressively engaged from the weekend when the second infection occurred. In that context, the families were still being notified as of yesterday. It was not appropriate to make a public announcement until all relevant families had been notified.

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