Mistake prone Reba Meagher shows the form which encouraged NSW to vote in a federal ALP administration. Mr Rudd has promised to insert more bureaucrats into the upper echelons in health, apparently believing that ordering around doctors and nurses and providing more paperwork will fix the broken administration.
Meanwhile, Ms Meagher shows her own ways of manufacturing results. Giving a report on how it came to be that a young woman died in pregnancy (Semmelweis would spin in his grave) Ms Meagher repeatedly called the dead woman by the wrong name. It was a touching display, reminiscent of how the Health Minister treats her constituents whom she won't live among. The parents of the dead girl, who attended parliament especially for the tabling of the report didn't seem to share the joy the rest of NSW feels in the display of competence.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
NSW Health Minister Bungles Again
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Minister makes dead mum gaffe
By Nick Ralston
NEW South Wales Health Minister Reba Meagher has been forced into an embarrassing apology to the couple who waited five months to be told how their daughter died.
The parents of Sharon Holloway today attended question time in the lower house of the NSW Parliament, after telling reporters they were upset and disturbed as to why they had not been told how the 39-year-old died.
But when Ms Meagher rose to explain their daughter had suffered cardiac arrest, she repeatedly called the woman Karen, forcing her to later issue a statement apologising to the Holloways.
Sharon was 37 weeks pregnant with a baby boy in June when she had trouble breathing and was taken by ambulance to Campbelltown Hospital, in Sydney's southwest.
When her mother Bess called the hospital, she was told her daughter had died and the unborn child had not survived.
In the months since, Bess and Sharon's father Allen said they had made repeated calls to Westmead morgue, hoping to discover how their seemingly healthy daughter, who also had a two-year-old son, had passed away.
"We lost a daughter and a grandson and we have no answers, and that's all we want," Ms Holloway said.
"We'd just like an answer."
All the couple was given was an interim death certificate, which reports an inconclusive death.
Mr Holloway said he also received a bill in the mail, addressed to Sharon and redirected to them, asking for Sharon to pay the $290 for the ambulance.
Ms Meagher today sought to offer some response to the family, but repeatedly referred to the woman as Karen and not Sharon.
"I'm advised that Karen Holloway, aged 39, was taken to Campbelltown Hospital five months ago. Karen died as a result of a complication with pregnancy," Ms Meagher told the parliament.
"On the 30th June, Ms Holloway was admitted to the emergency department at Campbelltown having suffered a cardiac arrest."
Ms Meagher said she could not be revived and that the unborn child was unable to be saved.
She said the local area health service chief executive Mike Wallace had apologised for the stress the Holloways had experienced over their daughter's death.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said Ms Meagher's mistaking Sharon's name further showed her incompetency.
"She has absolutely no interest in the human cost of her failure and her government's failure in relation to health," Mr O'Farrell told the parliament.
"They are just further statistics, they are just further bad news stories."
Ms Meagher late today apologised for any offence caused by mixing up the woman's name, saying it was "based on a mishearing of a media report prior to question time".
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