15/10/2021
I am staggered at the plea made by Dr Duncan-Smith about keeping the investigation details of SAC 1 incidents at Perth hospitals, confidential. To then justify this as their “first thoughts’ go to the families of those patients” is completely and utterly specious and disingenuous. He then points to the leak of the report into Aishwarya’s death as “breaking” the system. What unmitigated rubbish. The leaking of the report did nothing to “break” the system. It actually highlighted details of a system that was already shattered.
In the case of Aishwarya, the internal investigation was not endorsed by the family from day 1. Later the report released by the Internal Inquiry to Parliament was not endorsed by either the CEO of the Hospital nor the Health Minister. So why are the AMA now considering the Internal Inquiry as sacrosanct and the final arbiter of what transpired?
The release of Aishwarya’s report elicited swift action from WA Health and the Minister. It brought about action that otherwise would have gone the way of the previous inquiries. No change has resulted in our hospitals until the public scrutiny was well and truly focused on the details of the reports.
Dr Duncan-Smith also suggests that the Coroner’s Court will be the appropriate forum for examination of the system. In Aishwarya’s case we have been given a time frame of around 2 years to have the results of a coronial inquest. And based on last year’s figures there could be another five deaths occurring at the hospital.
I am sorry, Dr Duncan-Smith, we, the public, need to have some confidence in our hospitals. And we need to know how and why our systems are “broken”.
Suresh Rajan
Advocate for Aishwarya’s family
President, ECCWA
20 View Street
NORTH PERTH WA 6006
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