Health Minister Yvette D’Ath tells hospital bosses it’s up to them to read Caboolture review

Under-fire Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has told the state’s hospital bosses to read a damning review into Caboolture Hospital themselves and make sure their facilities were up to standard.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has passed the buck on patient safety across the state telling hospital bosses it was up to them to read an inquiry into Caboolture Hospital to make sure their facilities are up to scratch.

The damning review, which found at least one person died as a result of poor decision making and that a toxic culture was impacting standards of care, was unable to answer the question of whether the services offered in caboolture’s surgical and intensive care units were up to standard because of inadequate patient safety and quality reports.

Poor safety reporting and vital data collection was an issue across the whole of Metro north, not just Caboolture, the report found.

Asked whether it was an issue across every region in Queensland, Ms D’Ath said she would be “having that conversation with the board chairs and the chief executives”.

“They need to ensure they are meeting the expectation of the community and the government and making sure they are looking at this report and being satisfied they do have proper processes in place for reporting and tracking of complaints,” she said.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The Courier-Mail sent a list of questions to Ms D’Ath following the release of the report but was told she could not respond as she was travelling to Cairns.

While Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was forced to defend her Minister following Ms D’Ath’s decision on Wednesday to leave Metro North Board chair Jim McGowan to front the media alone following the report’s release.

Ms Palaszczuk said Ms D’Ath had been available to take questions earlier that morning, before the report was released.

“I don’t have a problem, my Ministers make themselves available,” she said.

The independent review ordered in early September, was sparked after a Courier-Mail investigation revealed horror allegations at the hospital including; patients had been killed and maimed as a result of botched surgeries, surgeons were potentially performing operations they were not trained in and a toxic workplace culture with widespread bullying and harassment.

The report found surgeons had not performed operations outside their training and did not identify anyone guilty of malpractice.

But Opposition leader David Crisafulli has questioned the depth of the inquiry, labelling it little more than “a dud report to protect a dud Minister”.

“Despite finding that the number of botched surgeries even in this short time frame is more than other hospitals … they didn’t find anybody accountable,” he said

Mr Crisafulli said despite the public being assured that every victim would be interviewed as a part of the review but that “did not happen”.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli. Picture Lachie Millard

Jody Heywood, 43, waited in Caboolture Hospital’s emergency department for seven hours before he was taken into surgery after suffering a burst appendix and what should have been a straightforward procedure resulted in him being in and out of hospital for eight months and another three surgeries to fix a litany of issues.

He has made multiple attempts to be interviewed as a part of the review but has been unable to get any answers on what happened to him or even who operated on him.

“All I know is we are not in the report, we don’t get a voice,” he said.

Ms Palaszczuk defended the fact patients’ experiences were not included as a part of the report saying it was independent and that “the government doesn’t dictate what goes into that report”.

She said the hospital would follow up all complaints made by patients.