The Medical Error Action Group received a letter from NSW Minister for Health the Hon Jillian Skinner MP on 3 August 2016, but only after she read it in Parliament and distributed it to the media.

This is the first correspondence received from the Minister or her Ministry in almost 5 years, which states that ‘each matter has been resolved through correspondence with involved parties which at times may not have included the Medical Error Action Group’.

This is untrue.  The Minister continues to mislead the public.

St Vincent’s Hospital chemo under-dosing scandal spreads to other hospitals

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-03/plan-to-probe-nsw-cancer-chemo-under-dosing-unrealistic:doctor/7684224

NEW SOUTH WALES:  The woman whose husband died after he spent 21 hours undiscovered in a hospital toilet after suffering a stroke has labelled NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner as a “waste of space”.

Her comments follow the latest hospital tragedy which left one newborn baby dead and another with severe disabilities.

As Mrs Skinner faces fresh calls to resign, an incensed Lexie Bugden told Sydney radio 2UE today the Health Minister had never contacted her, nor apologised for her husband’s death.

After hearing broadcasters speak to Mrs Skinner about her response to the death of a newborn baby after a gas mix-up at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Mrs Bugden phoned 2UE and let rip.

“She’s a waste of space. She really is,” Mrs Bugden said.

“I reckon that minister’s an absolute liar … they promised us it could never happen again.”

Read more:

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/youre-a-waste-of-space-widow-slams-health-minister-jillian-skinner/news-story/6f0fe1ade5af839c2147e2ed38367bfc

A newborn has died and another has suspected brain damage after nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, was incorrectly administered instead of oxygen at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney’s south-west.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/baby-dies-at-bankstown-lidcombe-hospital-after-oxygen-mix-up/7659552

How governments failed to stop the catastrophic impact of ‘tainted blood’ on thousands of people

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/how-governments-failed-to-stop-the-catastrophic-impact-of-tainted-blood-on-thousands-of-people-20160714-gq602j.html

The Australian Government in 2005 considered apologising to “tainted blood” victims. They’re still waiting.

JOANNE MCCARTHY
July 12, 2016, Tuesday, 6 p.m.

The Newcastle Herald

NEW SOUTH WALES:  CHARLES MacKenzie has waited a long time for the Australian Government to say sorry.

Long wait: Charles MacKenzie has fought governments, health bureaucrats and blood providers for years after up to 20,000 Australians knowingly received “tainted blood” in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. He is campaigning for the apology the Australian Government committed to in 2005. Picture: Simone De Peak.

He knows people who have died waiting.

In 1989, and aged 16, Mr MacKenzie was given a contaminated blood transfusion. The blood platelets that kept him alive as he battled life-threatening severe aplastic anaemia, also infected him with life-threatening hepatitis C.

Up to 20,000 other Australians – including babies, children, women after childbirth and haemophiliacs – are believed to have received “tainted blood” transfusions in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, in what has been described as a human health disaster and global scandal.

An unknown number developed, or could develop, serious liver disease, liver failure or liver cancer, at a rate “generally much higher” than people who contract the condition by other means, primarily illicit drug use, a Senate inquiry in 2004 was told.

It recommended the federal and state governments issue an apology to “tainted blood” hepatitis C victims, a financial fund for victims, and “case managed” support for people affected. The then health minister Tony Abbott said the governments would consider the recommendations.

It didn’t happen, said Mr MacKenzie, of Dora Creek, and Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long.

In the past 18 months English Prime Minister David Cameron has formally apologised to English “tainted blood” victims, and the Scottish and Irish governments have approved pensions and substantial compensation to victims and their families.

Mr Cameron told the UK Parliament in March, 2015: “It is difficult to imagine the feelings of unfairness that people must feel at being infected by something like hepatitis C or HIV as a result of a totally unrelated treatment, and to each and every one of those people, I would like to say sorry on behalf of the government for something that should not have happened.”

In Scotland in March the government agreed to pay immediate compensation payments to victims, with lifetime pensions.

“In Australia there’s been silence,” said Mr MacKenzie.

After Mr Cameron’s apology Ms Long wrote to then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, asking what had happened to the Australian response.

The letter was referred to Health Minister Sussan Ley.

Determined: Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long said it was a national disgrace that the Australian Government had not apologised to “tainted blood” victims.

In September 2015 Ms Ley wrote: “I wish to restate that I am deeply sorry to learn of the personal and physical suffering experienced by those who acquired hepatitis C from blood transfusions”, and the government acknowledged “the significant burden of this disease including the stigma”.

The response angered Mr MacKenzie and Ms Long, who called the failure to apologise and provide “case-managed” support for “tainted blood” victims a national disgrace.

“How can the UK apologise for a medical disaster, and Australia can’t, even after its own Senate recommended an apology?” Ms Long said.

An apology was vital for many reasons, including an acceptance of responsibility by federal and state governments, she said.

“People affected by one of Australia’s worst medical disasters can begin the important process of being able to show loved ones, employers and treating doctors that their infections were the outcome of an appalling tragedy and not the result of any illicit activity such as taking drugs.

“An apology will go some way to removing this ugly blood stain on Australia’s record.”

A 2004 Senate inquiry heard devastating evidence from victims who received hepatitis C in blood transfusions during childbirth and suffered debilitating symptoms, but did not discover the condition until years later. In at least one case a newborn baby was infected by hepatitis C because of a “tainted blood” transfusion.

“It’s the great unmentionable – how governments knew people would be infected with hepatitis C if they were given blood transfusions, but people weren’t told, and screening tests that could have been done, weren’t,” Mr MacKenzie said.

“Blood services were extremely aware there was a virus being transmitted to people, but they chose to do nothing about it. They just destroyed people’s lives.”

Read the full story:

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4023845/a-bloody-minded-silence/

UNITED KINGDOM:  A British surgeon has been struck off after mistakenly removing a patient’s testicle and then lying to the man that it was still there but simply “small”.

Dr Marwan FAROUK removed the 60-year-old’s whole right testicle in 2014 during a laparoscopic repair of a bilateral hernia and excision of an epididymal cyst, the UK Medical Practitioners Tribunal found.

When the patient awoke, Dr FAROUK did not tell him that he’d removed the testicle.  He instead told him: “You have a small right testicle but it won’t give you any problems”.

The tribunal was told Dr FAROUK neglected to record the testicle removal in his operation notes.

When theatre staff suggested the tissue be sent to histology, he replied there was no need and instructed them to “chuck it”, before dumping the testicle in the sharps bin.

When he returned to retrieve it, he found nurses had already removed it.

Two weeks after the surgery, Dr FAROUK wrote to the patient’s GP that “some testicular tissue was damaged during the operation and was removed – this was confirmed on histology”.

The tribunal held that Dr FAROUK sought to mislead the patient and deliberately fudged the written record.

But it found he did not mislead the patient’s GP and that the act of returning to the theatre to retrieve the binned testicle was not dishonest but an “ill-judged” attempt to rectify the situation.

The tribunal accepted he was a proficient and well-respected surgeon but said it was not confident that he had acknowledged or accepted his “proven dishonesty” and ruled to strike him from the medical register.

FRACTURED RED CROSS:  How one of the world’s most venerated charities has failed disaster victims, broken promises and made dubious claims of success. 

ProPublica wants you to help report on the Red Cross to help other journalists report on how it failed to deliver on promises following disasters around the world.

https://www.propublica.org/article/introducing-the-red-cross-reporting-network

MELBOURNE:  There were 11 cases of “potentially avoidable” newborn and stillborn deaths at Bacchus Marsh Hospital, north-west of Melbourne, a second review into the Djerriwarrh Health Services has found.

The findings follow an earlier inquiry into deaths between 2013 and 2014, which found the hospital’s perinatal mortality rate was significantly higher than the state average and much higher than expected for a “low risk” unit.

A further four deaths were found to have been potentially avoidable in the period between 2001 and 2012 as a result of the deficiencies in the clinical care provided at Djerriwarrh Health Services.

Read full story from ABC News Australia:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-08/review-finds-11-baby-deaths-avoidable-at-djerriwarrh-health/7492030

IN Canberra on Wednesday two groups will meet – the health regulator that approved pelvic mesh devices a decade ago without clinical evidence, and the women dealing with the catastrophic consequences.

The women, members of the Australian Pelvic Mesh Support Group, will tell senior Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) representatives many of their members can no longer work or have sex, are in constant and shocking pain, suffer debilitating infections, or have been told there is nothing doctors can do for them.

Go to full story and vote — Should a Senate inquiry be held into medical mesh?

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3922788/we-are-the-evidence-of-whats-gone-wrong-photos-video-poll/

“We are the physical evidence of what’s gone wrong and they need to see and hear from us,” support group founder Caz Chisholm said.

The TGA approved transvaginal (surgery through the vagina rather than the abdomen) mesh devices from 2005 for prolapse surgery in women after pregnancy and childbirth.

In 2014 the TGA admitted its assessment process for mesh prolapse devices was not “mature” and lacked “rigour”. In August that year the TGA announced there was “little evidence to support the overall effectiveness of these surgical meshes as a class of products” and moved to deregister devices that could not provide clinical proof of safety and efficacy.

“We want the TGA to suspend all mesh until the safety and efficacy of it can be proven, and if it can’t be proven mesh should be banned,” Caz Chisholm said.

Australian Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long said she supported the mesh women, and it was “disgraceful” that women were forced to campaign for answers because of regulatory failure.

“It’s always left to the patients to fight for answers or take legal action when things go wrong,” Ms Long said.

“There’s no one there to fight for the patient, which is the main reason I established my group. When things go wrong the regulators don’t get hold of the issue and help people deal with the consequences or prevent things from happening in future.

“There’s vast bureaucracies, but when things go wrong people are really on their own.”

Mesh women to meet Australian health regulator in Canberra during campaign for Senate inquiry | photos, video, poll

JOANNE McCARTHY

The Newcastle Herald

May 23, 2016, 6 p.m.