SYDNEY — This quote in today’s The Sydney Morning Herald illustrates that the New South Wales Ministry of Health is clueless.  There should be no need for any inquiry if they had just listened (they don’t know how) and took note of the thousands of letters they receive every day about problems and fixed them.      Read this:

NSW Health acknowledged the concerns and said it welcomed the opportunity to participate in the inquiry.

“Of all those patients who pass through our public hospitals, 99.999 per cent will have a positive outcome,” a spokesperson said.

“Just 0.001 per cent of all patients discharged from hospital will be involved in a clinical incident which results in serious patient harm, known as a sentinel event.”

“Welcomed the opportunity”?  “Participate”?  NSW Ministry of Health should be driving this, not welcoming it.  Sounds like they are a side participant looking in. They are the government department of health and supposedly in charge.  Their incompetence reigns … the dumbest response from a government health department.  And they can’t work out why the rural hospital system is a mess because they don’t know what to do.

As for the 0.001%?  That is a fabricated percentage.  All lies.  All spin concocted by people who have not got a clue but got to protect their unaccountable ministry.  Patients being discharged via the morgue instead of the front door adds up to more than 0.001%.

Read the full horror (no surprise to MEAG) of Carrie Fellner’s in The Sydney Morning Herald:

BYO bandages: inquiry told of ‘horrendous’ state of NSW hospitals

BUNBURY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA — A mother has described the heartbreaking moment she woke from a coma to discover her baby boy had died at birth after she was given 10 times the prescribed dose of morphine at the private St John of God Hospital in the West Australian town of Bunbury, south of Perth.

The mother was given 100 milligrams of the drug during labour instead of 10 milligrams to ease the pain, at St John of God Hospital on December 10, 2020.

“It was devastating. It just broke my whole life,” the mother said.

St John of God Health Care has already concluded: “On the available information at this time, it appears that the incident was caused by human error”.

A midwife has been stood down and her registration suspended by AHPRA.  Another staff member has resigned.

READ FULL STORY FROM THE WEST AUSTRALIAN BETHANY HIATT:

Bunbury hospital’s morphine bungle leaves baby Zyeen dead, other Mansurin Sarah Hassan in coma

AND FROM ABC NEWS NICOLAS PERPITCH:

WA mother wakes from coma to find baby was stillborn after hospital in Bunbury gave her 10 times prescribed morphine dose

BOWRAL, SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS, NSW — Another misdiagnosis upon presentation to Bowral and District Hospital‘s emergency department.

This is the 5th case of patients’ families not being listened to and sending the patient home for them to present again and again.  Bowral and District Hospital refused to transfer patients to any major Sydney hospitals.  Families had to organise it themselves.  Two of the patients died shortly after admission to different Sydney hospitals.

The hospital needs to conduct root cause analysis and see what’s going on.  Is it capable of doing so?

Better trained doctors in the ED are required for a start.

Warning to patients:  Steer clear of Bowral.  Drive to Sydney if you have to.

Made in China drugs — not the illegal ones Chinese crime gangs distribute unlawfully in Australia but the ones Big Pharma outsourced to China to make even bigger bucks.  Big Pharma didn’t reduce the cost of their medicines they got made for 50¢ in China, instead ripped off everyone worldwide and kept prices sky-high to increase their already mammoth profits.

When you have your next prescription filled at your local chemist, ask where the medicines are manufactured.  Decline the ones Made in China — they are usually the big known brands.  Go for a generic brand but make sure it is not made in China.  It is an interesting exercise and requires little effort in asking a question.  Go for Australian made at all times.

Support Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and go for generic brands not made in China.

D E M A N D   A U S T R A L I A N   M A D E

ESSEN, GERMANY —

A German doctor is facing manslaughter charges over two deaths, reportedly of COVID-19 patients. Police cited him as giving medication to hasten the death of one patient and to “avert further suffering.”

Two patients, aged 47 and 50, were terminally ill when a senior doctor allegedly administered medication that led to their immediate deaths, police said Friday.

Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the two deaths amid reports that the patients were being treated for COVID-19.

The senior doctor, 44, employed since February at the University Hospital in Essen city in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), was arrested on Wednesday, charged with manslaughter on Thursday and remained in custody, city police said.

The hospital said suspicions about the deaths on November 13 and 17 had prompted it to immediately notify prosecutors and remove the doctor from duty.

Assisted death is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany in light of the legacy of the 6 million Jews killed and experimented on by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. 

Read full story in Deutsche Welle (DW):

German doctor arrested on suspicion of killing coronavirus patients

MELBOURNE — The Victorian Government has so far refused to reveal how many people have contracted coronavirus in health settings, such as hospitals and rehabilitation centres.

But from the general information available, it’s clear there are at least 25 people like Ms Heywood who entered a facility to be treated for an unrelated illness and became infected.

At least four of them have died — three of them cancer patients at The Alfred Hospital.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) said a report with the final figures would be released in the coming weeks.

Key points:

• Christina Heywood is one of 17 patients who caught coronavirus while staying at a Frankston rehabilitation centre
• Three months on she is still suffering the lingering effects of coronavirus
• A health expert says better infection control in hospitals is the key to controlling the spread of the virus to patients

Read the read full story by ABC’s Jessica Longbottom:

Patients who caught COVID-19 in health settings demand official figures, as experts claim cases were preventable

SYDNEY — An elderly dementia patient acquired a myriad of cuts and bruises while in hospital – and now her family are demanding answers.

The 83-year-old woman received treatment at Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Hospital, north of Sydney, before her family collected her last Thursday, 1st October 2020.

When they picked her up, she had bruises running up her arms, across her face and on her neck.  She had skin falling off her forearm.

It took five days for a representative of the hospital to answer the family’s questions over what happened, saying she suffered two falls.

“I was broken-hearted, shocked, just couldn’t believe the state she was in,” daughter Tracey McCarthy told 7NEWS.

However, with bruises around her neck and blackened eyes, the family and others are struggling to understand how this happened.

“Bruises around the neck? I mean what’s that from?” Lorraine Long from the Medical Error Action Group said.

Police, however, say there is no evidence any sinister took place.

Detectives interviewed staff and the woman herself – but she was not of much help given she didn’t remember sustaining the injuries at all.

THIS IS AFTER HOSPITAL TREATMENT!

For more of 7NEWS and The Daily Mail see:

Family of elderly dementia patient demand answers over relative’s bruises in hospital care

Family horrified after 83-year-old dementia patient suffers injuries at a Sydney hospital

DUBBO, WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES —

Speaking up and reporting failures gets a doctor sacked after revealing thousands of test results were never followed up at a major NSW hospital last year leading to the prescription of wrong medications, missed broken bones and the death of a baby girl, a doctor who worked there has alleged.

When the doctor tried to raise the alarm after discovering the unchecked results at Dubbo Base Hospital, he was accused of being “unsupportive” of colleagues and sacked, the Sydney Morning Herald can reveal.

“During that week I had personally gone through perhaps 2000 unchecked results,” the doctor said in an email to management, which was leaked to the Herald.  “This is an absolutely extraordinary number.”

The revelations put Dubbo Base Hospital back in the spotlight after a Herald investigation in May uncovered a death and a series of troubling near misses at the flagship facility and a second hospital within the Western NSW Local Health District.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is expected to come under renewed pressure after dismissing the need for an inquiry into regional NSW hospitals, as sources said the state opposition was close to securing the numbers for an inquiry examining the Herald’s revelations.

READ MORE OF CARRIE FELLNER’S STORY IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 12.09.2020:

Baby’s death leads to extraordinary discovery of 2,000 unchecked results at hospital

BRISBANE, Queensland —

Theft of drugs from hospitals for for Queensland Police to investigate, not internal hospital mechanisms.

Thousands of highly addictive medicines and drugs at Queensland’s busiest hospitals have gone missing or have been stolen, with some staff facing disciplinary action.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital are the two hospitals involved.

The list of unaccounted-for medication across the Metro North and Metro South districts around Brisbane includes numerous high-level and restricted drugs like Fentanyl, Oxycodone and Methadone.

The documents were obtained under Right to Information and reveal thousands of medical supplies went missing between January and September 2019.

Read more the ABC News story:

Addictive drugs missing from Queensland’s Metro South and Metro North health service

DUBBO, WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES –

‘Incredibly distressing’: Minister intervenes over patient death and bungled records

Carrie FellnerAugust 7, 2020 — 12.02am

Bungled medical records given to the family of a man who died following treatment in a western NSW hospital mistakenly contained confidential notes belonging to another patient, listed the wrong surgeon and were missing a key blood report.

These mistakes come amid revelations a ministerial review team investigating the patient’s death interviewed his family the day before their reporting deadline and were then denied requests for more time to “adequately investigate” concerns raised at the meeting.

Mr Wells died after he was discharged from Cobar hospital against his family’s wishes last year. His treatment was branded “Third World” in May by his daughter, Jamelle Wells, a Sydney-based journalist.

While Mr Wells was in Dubbo Base Hospital he went without food or water for three days because it was too expensive to roster staff on, in a ward that ran out of morphine and Panadol, his family said.

The state of his medical records was slammed as a “shambles” by Lorraine Long of the Medical Error Action Group.

The Western NSW Local Health District disputes the claims made by Mr Wells’ family.

Mr Hazzard ordered the health district to conduct a review of the patient’s experiences and make its report available to him upon completion.

The Herald understands the review is being carried out by Dr Clare Skinner, the director of emergency medicine at Hornsby Hospital, and Dr Melanie Berry, the clinical director of quality and safety at the Western NSW Local Health District.

Mr Fahy “sincerely apologised” for an administrative error that meant the wrong doctor was listed on Mr Wells’ medical records.

He said the reason blood transfusion notes were missing was not clear and would be reviewed.

There is no suggestion Mr Fahy was personally responsible for any error made in the record-keeping or Mr Wells’ treatment.

Mr Wells’ family were astonished to later discover that one page of the medical records belonged to another elderly patient who lived in Narromine in Western NSW.

Ms Long of the Medical Error Action Group, who made the discovery, said the bungle was an unlawful breach of patient privacy.

“The state of Mr Wells’ records was a shambles, particularly noting missing records, gaps in records, records out of chronological order and procedures done without notes being recorded,” she said.

She accused Dubbo Base Hospital of “robbing the dead” by charging more than $600 for the records and said the usual fee was $30.

A spokesperson for the Western NSW Local Health District said it had investigated the incident, spoken to the Narromine man’s carer and apologised.

Read more of Carrie Fellner’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald:

‘Incredibly distressing’: Minister intervenes over patient death and bungled records