Page 3373 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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important for us as politicians so that we understand that, when we are making decisions in this place and talking about statistics, we are actually talking about people’s lives and the effect on families, which is significant. It has certainly brought it home to all of us in this case.
I recognise also the endeavours of ACT Health staff, and certainly it is not my intent here to apportion any blame. They are dealing with difficult circumstances at the moment with hospital systems which are under immense pressure both from, I would contend, the mismanagement of this government over a number of years that has failed to deal with the increasing capacity across a range of areas, and from the swine flu epidemic and the normal influenzas that are faced during the winter period and the pressure that puts on them. I will talk to Ms Gallagher’s proposed amendment in that regard later.
In outlining the family’s concern, they have spoken to the media extensively and they have also put out a statement which articulates their concerns. I would just like to summarise some of those issues. One of the significant issues they have is that they only found out through the media that their father had passed away from swine flu. So it was reported in the media, and it was three days after their father’s death that they found out. That is quite unfortunate and speaks to the inadequate information about his condition that was passed to the family both prior to his death and then afterwards.
The implications for the family were significant. Indeed, the sister of Katie Sewell suffers from the same underlying condition as her father did. I will just quote again Katie Sewell’s words:
As a result of TCH health professionals not making any attempt to contact our family to provide information or offer support related to swine flu, we were left to ourselves to find the answers to many questions that concerned us and the people who had come in contact with Dad and/or his personal environment at home. My family had serious concerns for one of my sisters who has the same pre-existing medical condition as our dad and had been in his house after he died.
She says further:
Sources of information included: ACT Health—TCH, New South Wales Cooma District Hospital, Swine Flu Hotline, General Practitioner, World Health Organisation—Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 website and others alike. We were left to form our own conclusions regarding the risks associated with swine flu, with the real possibility we were wrong. This created a sense of isolation, fear, anxiety, guilt and excruciating pain.
There was also a situation where the family received a call from the Canberra Hospital a week after Mr Johns’s death, saying that their father had been discharged and he had left his clothes behind. That obviously caused significant further distress. In the family’s words:
The lack of procedure had left undue strain on the family which was compounded when TCH contacted my step mum saying that dad had been discharged a week earlier leaving his clothes behind when in fact he had actually died in their hospital.
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