Vic: Report finds16 deaths in Victorian hospitals
MELBOURNE, Aug 11 AAP - Sixteen people reportedly died in Victorian hospitals due tomedical mistakes last financial year, including a child who was given the wrong medication.
Almost a dozen other people suffered injury due to medical staff treating the wrongpatient or body part, instruments being left behind after surgery and neurological damageaccording to documents The Age has reportedly obtained.
Five more patients reportedly committed suicide in hospital.
The deaths and injuries reported to the State Government in 2002-03 - the second yeardetails of such mistakes have been supplied - are regarded as only a small number of thosethat actually take place.
"It's still a relatively low proportion of the major incidents and deaths that areoccurring," said Michael Walsh, chief executive of Bayside Health - which covers hospitalsincluding the Alfred - and deputy chair of the Australian Council for Safety and Qualityin Health Care, a body set up in 2000 by federal and state health ministers.
"The reality is that hospitals have an appreciable element of risk about them, particularlyfor folk with complex care needs, who are quite old, and come through the emergency department,"
he said.
Documents detailing the events, obtained under freedom of information laws, did notdisclose which hospitals were involved or information that might identify patients, thepaper said.
AAP ag/cjh
KEYWORD: MISTAKES
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