Case of young man losing testicle over Modbury Hospital ED surgery debacle not first time the facility failed a patient, medics’ union says
A CASE of a young man losing a testicle after he was transferred from Modbury Hospital because it no longer offered emergency surgery was not the first time the downgraded facility had failed a patient, a doctors’ union says.
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A CASE of a young man losing a testicle after he was transferred from Modbury Hospital because it no longer offered emergency surgery was not the first time the downgraded facility had failed a patient, the public hospitals doctors’ union says.
South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association president Dr David Pope said the devastating incident was just the “tip of the iceberg”.
The Advertiser yesterday revealed a young man was taken by ambulance to Modbury Hospital with a twisted testicle about six weeks ago.
It was claimed a surgeon and anaesthetist were ready to operate but due to protocols under the controversial Transforming Health changes he was instead transferred to Lyell McEwin Hospital, resulting in a delay of two hours.
Health Minister Jack Snelling denied the patient’s outcome was compromised.
However, Dr Pope said that in the past month there had been two “clear-cut” cases of patients experiencing poor outcomes in similar circumstances.
“It’s definitely the tip of the iceberg and the distressing thing is no one is doing anything to fix it so it will probably happen again,” he said.
He even said it was “arguable” that “there have been some avoidable deaths” as a result of Modbury’s downgrade.
“The doctors are distressed and they’re quite angry because the bureaucracy and the minister were warned about these things,” Dr Pope said.
“You can’t have a situation where you have a patient present to hospital needing emergency surgery and they can’t access it.”
Under the health reforms, Modbury Hospital stopped offering emergency surgery in March, despite written warnings from 30 doctors.
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the case also raised concerns about ambulance protocols.
“Minister Snelling has been telling people for months to ring an ambulance in an emergency,” he said.
“But the Modbury case shows ambulance officers don’t always have the information they need to know whether it is safe to go to a downgraded ED.”
The Advertiser asked the SA Ambulance Service whether the young man in question had been taken to the wrong hospital but the service cited “patient confidentiality” for declining to comment.
Mr Snelling would not comment either.
Ambulance Employees Association general secretary Phil Palmer said he had not heard any feedback from ambulance officers about a lack of information but it was important in making a decision.
Meanwhile, Jackie Hanson, SA Health’s Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer, said a complaint had been received from the young man about a breach of patient confidentiality and would be investigated.