Almost 18 months after sweeping to power on the back of a hallmark promise to overhaul South Australia’s ailing health system, Peter Malinauskas this week found himself dealing with another serious hospital bungle.
“This is as big an error one could possibly imagine,” the SA premier said on Monday.
“It’s tragic mistake, on top of tragic mistake, on top of incompetence.”
Mr Malinauskas was referring to “systemic problems” uncovered in an independent review of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital’s cochlear implant program.
For 17 years, 208 children had their cochlear implant devices programmed at the hospital.
Of those, at least 30 children’s cochlear implants were incorrectly programmed, but that number could be higher, with independent assessments still underway.
There are now concerns some children have lifelong developmental delays from years without being able to hear properly.
“We don’t believe it is 208 (children), but it is certainly a number,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“We know not less than 30 of those 208 have had an adverse outcome.”
Government faces multi-million-dollar compensation bill
An initial internal review conducted by the Women’s and Children’s Health Network failed to correctly identify the number of children who were caught up in the bungle, prompting the government to commission a second external review.
It has pledged $3.3 million to start implementing all 59 recommendations from that inquiry.
It has also promised to pay families of children whose cochlear implants were incorrectly programmed $50,000 in compensation. A separate $5000 payment will be handed to families of children whose devices are working correctly.
That brings the total cost of the bungle to $5.6 million, but that figure could grow significantly if families choose to pursue compensation claims through the courts.
The government has also hinted that the number of affected children could grow, with Mr Malinauskas conceding the errors were “monumental” in scale.
But it wasn’t the only serious health headache facing the Malinauskas government this week.
The lights going out at one of the state’s biggest hospitals offered plenty of ammunition to critics who argue Labor has failed to fix the state’s health woes.
An onsite transformer failure caused elective surgery postponements and led to the relocation of some intensive care patients, with warnings it could take weeks to fix the electrical issue.
Power failure leaves patients in the dark
The power outage raises questions about how the state’s public hospitals are maintained.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has pointed to the Flinders Medical Centre’s ageing infrastructure, warning patient safety could be at risk if upgrades aren’t carried out.
“I think it’s important to realise how crucial it is from a patient safety perspective to maintain and refresh that infrastructure,” the union’s chief executive, Elizabeth Debars, said.
The Malinauskas government has promised a $400 million state and federal-funded redevelopment of Flinders Medical Centre, but that won’t be fully completed until 2028.
In the meantime, SA Health’s reputation has taken a hit, with patients criticising the government for leaving Adelaide’s second biggest public hospital in the dark.
“People are a little bit pissed off,” one Flinders Medical Centre patient said.
“We leave that to the government to work out, I guess.”
Time running out to deliver on election pledge
For four years in opposition, as ramping mounted and the hospital system faced a litany of headaches – Labor pointed the blame at the Liberal government for the system’s woes.
After 18 months in power, the government is getting a taste of that medicine.
Mr Malinauskas and Health Minister Chris Picton have repeatedly argued it will take time to expand hospitals, employ more health workers, unclog emergency departments and rebuild trust in the system.
But with just two-and-a-half years until Labor faces voters again, the pressure is mounting on the government to deliver on its pledge to get the health system back on track.
