RAH stroke specialist rostering scandal: Provisional plans again put experts on leave at the same time
THE two Royal Adelaide Hospital specialists who were on leave when two stroke patients died are currently scheduled to be on leave at the same time again in July.
- RAH specialists ‘on leave when stroke patients died’
- Chemo bungle scandal: Two SA Health medicos stood down
- Man loses testicle after sent to another hospital after long delay
- Most SA surgeons don’t support Transforming Health plan
- The great debate about Transforming Health reforms
THE two Royal Adelaide Hospital specialists who were on leave when two stroke patients died were scheduled to be on leave at the same time again in July according to provisional rosters.
SA Health is now conducting urgent internal inquiries into the deaths which will be referred to the Coroner.
Both patients were admitted to the RAH on April 18, when the hospital’s two neurointerventionist radiologists qualified to suction a blood clot from the brain were on leave.
There are only three such specialists in SA according to SA Health — the third is not accredited to work at the RAH but once staff realised they had no-one available for the potentially life saving procedure they asked him to come in and perform the procedure.
A similar situation occurred later the same day, and in both cases the patient died.
SA Health say both patients were treated in a “clinically appropriate time frame” but officials have refused to say what this time frame is.
In the case of the first death, the patient had been admitted, undergone scans and designated as suitable for the clot retrieval technique before staff realised there was no-one rostered on to do the work.
One of the specialists was contacted while holidaying at Victor Harbor and was told the patient needed ‘to have the procedure urgently’ but advised it would be more than three hours before he could get to the RAH.
A radiologist — not one of the three with the expertise to suction a blood clot from the brain -rostered to start at the RAH more than six hours later was contacted but informed staff he had no experience of acute stroke clot retrieval, and that as he was already working at another site could not come in until his shift started.
Staff then approached the external specialist who agreed to come into the RAH to perform the procedure.
The RAH rosters face an overhaul after clinicians asked administrators to ensure an “adequate medical roster”.
Under the Transforming Health overhaul, the RAH is supposed to be the state’s centre of excellence for stroke treatment, with 24/7 availability of all services.
Flinders Medical Centre in the south and Lyell McEwin Hospital in the north have stroke teams rostered on 8am-8pm seven days a week, but patients needing brain clot removal by suction procedure are supposed to go to the RAH regardless.
Transforming Health documents state: “The plan also defines a clear pathway for patients for Endovascular Clot Retrieval, with all eligible cases transferred to the RAH.”
