Government insurer caves in and agrees to meet legal costs of chemotherapy bungle victim Chris McRae

THE State Government’s insurers have caved in and agreed to meet the legal costs of chemotherapy bungle victim Chris McRae, who fought the Royal Adelaide Hospital for compensation before dying last year.

Critically-ill chemo bungle victim Bronte Higham.

• Five chemotherapy bungle victims accept $100,000 compensation offer
• Insurer won’t budge beyond $100K compo offer to bungle victims
• David Penberthy: Don’t let doctors bury mistakes

THE State Government’s insurers have caved in and agreed to meet the legal costs of chemotherapy bungle victim Chris McRae, who fought the Royal Adelaide Hospital for compensation before dying last November.

A family spokeswoman said she rang Government insurer SAICORP to accept a government compensation offer of $82,000 for the underdosing scandal – cut from $100,000 to take account of a settlement with the RAH – but the family wanted its legal fees paid.

The state penny-pinching was revealed in The Advertiser on Wednesday, prompting the offer to meet legal fees.

“They are not going to budge on the $82,000 and I thought that was going to be the case,” the family spokeswoman said.

She said the compensation figure did not reflect the “horrendous” process her parents went through, which included an initial offer from the RAH to Mr McRae of $5000 for a chemotherapy error that the family believed contributed to his death.

“Poor dad didn’t have any choices in the matter,” she said. “It was take it or leave it. (They were saying) you can feel free to litigate even though that was not going to be an option for a gravely ill man.”

She said the family felt it had come a small way after the victory on costs, even though the amount was minor.

“We decided to accept it and move on,” she said.

Four other patients and their families reluctantly accepted the $100,000 payment, saying they could not commit their families to years of bitter litigation.

One, Andrew Knox, said that “we are too tired, too sick or deceased”. “We have no choice,” he said.

Chemo le victim and negotiator Andrew Knox. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

As calls mounted on Thursday for a royal commission or a ­judicial inquiry, Premier Jay Weatherill made an abject apology for the way compensation for the 10 victims and their families had been mishandled.

Until The Advertiser reported that dying patient Bronte Higham had not received compensation or an apology, Mr Weatherill said he had believed his government was behaving as “a model litigant” in settling claims for the 10 patients. Two have died and one is dying.

He said his government would “reflect” on whether SA Health should take greater control of difficult cases.

“I do not think it received the sensitivity of treatment, or certainly the urgency of treatment, that it needed,” he said. “That is something we are going to reflect upon.”

He said compensation involving life-threatening illnesses, or where the state was clearly at fault, should receive special treatment.

With Bronte Higham sick in Flinders Medical Centre, his son, Kym Higham, said no amount of compensation could make up for what had happened to the family. But he said his father was satisfied an offer was made.

“The sort of bloke that he is, he wanted something to come of it before he passes,” Mr Higham said. “I guess there is some satisfaction, but I can assure you he’d rather be somewhere out with us having a beer than being in hospital where he is now.”

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall joined victims in calling for a full judicial inquiry into what had gone wrong in “a disgraceful episode in the state’s history”.

“It’s not just the chemotherapy dosing bungle, it is also the BreastScreen SA debacle and the prostate debacle,” he said. “The Government doesn’t seem to have systems in place to ensure the safety of the ­people of this state.”