REMEMBER WHEN

Saturday, June 3, 1995

A NATIONAL taskforce was created to fight preventable deaths in hospitals, which some healthcare workers linked to stretched hospital budgets.

However the taskforce head said people should not put off seeking hospital treatment despite “alarming” figures.

Dr Bruce Armstrong also said the standard of hospital care would improve immediately.

He said community concern at research released by Health Minister Carmen Lawrence was understandable but urged people to continue seeking the care they needed.

Dr Lawrence revealed hospital errors were killing more than 14,000 people a year and leaving up to 30,000 permanently disabled. She established the taskforce to work on solutions to the crisis.

Dr Armstrong, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare director, said the taskforce would complete its report by the end of 1995.

He said there was adequate information to compile a report within six months.

“Clearly people suffer adverse events while receiving hospital treatment and the sooner action can be taken, the better.”

Dr Armstrong said the mere publication of the data should result in an immediate improvement in the quality of hospital care and urged people not to delay seeking hospital treatment while his review was underway.

Gold Coast AMA president Dr Phil Harrington said the Minister’s comments about addressing the problems of preventable deaths were based on questionable sourced reports when years of evidence had been available to her.