Chemo bungle victim Andrew Knox asks Premier Jay Weatherill to urgently sanction medical staff who failed to follow safety procedures

CHEMOTHERAPY bungle victim Andrew Knox has called on Premier Jay Weatherill to urgently sanction medical staff who failed to follow safety procedures — or risk yet another major error.

Andrew Knox in front of Parliament House, where he met Premier Jay Weatherill. Picture: Sam Wundke

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CHEMOTHERAPY bungle victim Andrew Knox has called on Premier Jay Weatherill to urgently sanction medical staff who failed to follow safety procedures — or risk yet another major error.

Mr Knox, a cancer patient who is campaigning to change the medical culture after being incorrectly dosed, had his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Weatherill at Parliament House on Wednesday, soon after the Premier faced down a no-confidence motion over mismanagement in Families SA.

Speaking after the 30-minute meeting, Mr Knox said he would write to Mr Weatherill to make the case for a judicial inquiry into the underdosing of ten seriously ill cancer patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre in 2014-15. At least two of the patients have since died and another three have relapsed.

Mr Knox said he told Mr Weatherill in a polite but serious meeting that the first inquiry into the bungle, the Marshall report, had made general recommendations about staff re-education, but there was nothing in place to change the culture.

While eight clinicians were referred for potential disciplinary action to AHPRA, nothing was in place to deal with those who ignored safety procedure, including covering up a mistake by failing to properly report it.

“It is unsatisfactory if there are no sanctions in the future for people who misuse the safety system, even though elsewhere in the system there was dismissal for those who wrongly accessed medical records,” he said.

“There must be some teeth in the safety system and sanctions must be applied against those who misuse it. Otherwise there will be more of the same.”

Mr Knox told Mr Weatherill it was wrong to claim patients received counselling, transport assistance to medical appointments and occupational therapy at home, as had been claimed.

He said the patient Bronte Higham, who is gravely ill, only received a care co ordinator in February.

The Premier asked Mr Knox to write to him and put the case for a judicial inquiry after Mr Knox told him the current inquiries, including the parliamentary select committee, were “toothless”.