At least 11 patients have been affected in a urology healthcare bungle at north Queensland’s largest public hospital, which cares for remote patients living hundreds of kilometres away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Townsville Hospital and Health Service (THHS) said appointments were not booked and test results not provided to the patients, some of whom have been diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Queensland Health’s Director-General David Rosengren\u00a0has announced an independent investigation into the health service and has set up a broader taskforce to investigate complaints about care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David Rosengren has announced an independent investigation into the Townsville health service. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n
The investigation will look at the health service’s administration, management, delivery, and clinical governance of urology services from January 2022 through to 31 July 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“These concerns include reports of patients and their loved ones not receiving the appropriate follow-up care, such as being contacted about test results, which we regret and for which I apologise,” Dr Rosengren said.<\/p>\n
“Queensland Health holds itself to the highest standards of patient care. In some instances, those standards were not met to the level expected.”<\/p>\n
Acting THHS chief executive Rex O’Rourke said gaps in care were identified when a GP re-referred a patient to the hospital’s urology service in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The investigation will examine if demand for urology services exceeded capacity at the Townsville Hospital. (ABC North Queensland: Rachael Merritt)<\/p>\n
“We responded to that patient’s issues and then commissioned a review of our waitlist,” Mr O’Rourke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“During that review, we identified the 11 patients who had gaps and delays in their care.”<\/p>\n
Mr O’Rourke said each patient had been contacted with clinical care provided as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said among those patients, some had been diagnosed with cancer, but he did not give specific details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Cancers have not been missed, rather it is around people’s test results coming in and making appointments with those individuals,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr O’Rourke said the health service’s appointment booking process was the primary issue, not the quality of clinical care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the urology waitlist had 821 patients listed as of Sunday evening, and promised their care would be reviewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Statewide concerns<\/p>\n
Dr Rosengren\u00a0said there was a shortage of urologists and that would form part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
“The investigation will examine whether demand for urology services exceeded the capacity of Townsville University Hospital and subsequently influenced delays in follow-up care,” Dr Rosengren\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“There is significant pressure on health systems from a shortage of specialist clinicians, including urologists, and Queensland Health is not immune from this.<\/p>\n
“We owe it to patients to do as much as we can to identify and address challenges affecting their care, which is why I have established a dedicated urology taskforce.”<\/p>\n
Profoundly disappointing<\/p>\n
THHS board chair Tony Mooney apologised to affected patients and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It will be profoundly disappointing for our community to hear this today,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We have unequivocally supported the investigation and we are committed to implementing any and all of the findings.”<\/p>\n
THHS said its chief executive Keiran Keyes was on annual leave and would assist the investigation upon his return in some weeks.<\/p>\n
Concerned patients are being urged to contact the dedicated phone line on 4433 0396 between 8am and 4pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 11 patients have been affected in a urology healthcare bungle at north Queensland’s largest public hospital,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500,118541,8920,118542,93043,80162],"class_list":["post-185668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-investigation-into-townsville-hospital","tag-queensland-health","tag-rex-orourke","tag-townsville-hospital-and-health-service","tag-urology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}