AdelaideNow... Seven die from health system 'mistakes'
SEVEN people have died and dozens more have been left disabled or traumatised by mistakes within the health system, a survey has found.
A consumer watchdog group's snapshot of the public and private health systems also found only six in 10 people affected had filed official complaints, with people citing a fear of retribution and a lack of trust in the system as reasons for staying silent.
Of those surveyed by Health Rights and Community Action, few complainants received apologies and only one respondent felt the system had subsequently changed.
HRCA spokeswoman Pam Moore said the results pointed to the need for an urgent overhaul of complaints processes, with changes to the Health and Community Services Complaints Act and the resourcing of an independent consumer advocacy organisation.
"We are of the strong belief that sweeping changes are needed to health complaints processes generally, within SA, and nationally," she said. Most of the 70 respondents were unhappy with the standard of care, communication, misdiagnoses or waiting times.
In one example, a man's aorta was fatally severed during a triple bypass and when they told his wife, she had a heart attack and died three days later. In another case a GP ignored a woman's complaint of breast pain. She had an independent scan and two days later had to have a total mastectomy.
Other respondents told of threats, bullying and abuse when they tried to complain about their treatment.
Health Minister John Hill said some of the complaints referred to were 30 years old and most were about the private sector. Private hospitals and GPs have separate complaints processes, but unhappy patients can still complain to the HCSC commissioner.
"The State Government has set up a clear process which lets people make complaints about public health services (and) we established the HCSC commissioner to investigate complaints about all health and community services - private and public," he said.
SEVEN people have died and dozens more have been left disabled or traumatised by mistakes within the health system, a survey has found.
A consumer watchdog group's snapshot of the public and private health systems also found only six in 10 people affected had filed official complaints, with people citing a fear of retribution and a lack of trust in the system as reasons for staying silent.
Of those surveyed by Health Rights and Community Action, few complainants received apologies and only one respondent felt the system had subsequently changed.
HRCA spokeswoman Pam Moore said the results pointed to the need for an urgent overhaul of complaints processes, with changes to the Health and Community Services Complaints Act and the resourcing of an independent consumer advocacy organisation.
"We are of the strong belief that sweeping changes are needed to health complaints processes generally, within SA, and nationally," she said. Most of the 70 respondents were unhappy with the standard of care, communication, misdiagnoses or waiting times.
In one example, a man's aorta was fatally severed during a triple bypass and when they told his wife, she had a heart attack and died three days later. In another case a GP ignored a woman's complaint of breast pain. She had an independent scan and two days later had to have a total mastectomy.
Other respondents told of threats, bullying and abuse when they tried to complain about their treatment.
Health Minister John Hill said some of the complaints referred to were 30 years old and most were about the private sector. Private hospitals and GPs have separate complaints processes, but unhappy patients can still complain to the HCSC commissioner.
"The State Government has set up a clear process which lets people make complaints about public health services (and) we established the HCSC commissioner to investigate complaints about all health and community services - private and public," he said.
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