An investigation is underway after revelations almost 50,000 X-rays taken at public hospitals on the Gold Coast have not been properly checked leaving patients at risk.  The investigation will examine what Minister for Health Lawrence SPRINGBORG has called a ‘long-running failure of a system designed to pick up undiagnosed medical conditions’.

Minister Springborg ordered the investigation into the lapse, which involves 48,000 X-rays taken since 2013.

Yes, you read it right… 48,000, repeat 48,000!

He said he had been advised the problem was isolated to the Gold Coast, but the inquiry would look at checking procedures across the state.

External checks would be carried out, at least in the short to medium term, to make sure all X-rays taken at the Gold Coast University Hospital and Robina Hospital were properly checked, he said.

“Delays and backlogs in this system cannot be permitted,” he said in a statement.

The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Board says it is aware of at least two patients who suffered adverse effects as a result of the failure.

It said it was aware there were problems with the checking procedures, but the extent of it did not become clear until late last week.

Why not?

About 22,000 X-rays have been earmarked for priority review.

The board’s patient safety spokeswoman Colette McCOOL said board members were aware there was a problem with the process, and had ordered a report on the matter.  But the scope of the problem, and the huge backlog of tests not properly checked, had come as a shock.

“We’d been advised that it was an issue over the last six months or so, but the magnitude of it wasn’t realised until last Thursday,” she told reporters on Monday, 14 July 2014.

The board’s chief executive Ron CALVERT said previous efforts to fix the problem had failed.  “Our efforts to remedy the situation have stumbled. We make mistakes. It happens,” he said.

“Our job is to make sure when we make these mistakes we are open and transparent about it and we learn from it and improve.”

They don’t.  Too many mistakes Gold Coast Hospital!  Robina, you’re no better!  The bungling at the old hospital has been transferred to the new.

Mr CALVERT said any patients found to have secondary problems would be contacted.

Don’t bet on it!

In Queensland, all X-rays are required to be double checked by radiologists.

Who was checking the double-checkers then?

Where did these radiologists get their degrees, if at all?