HOSPITAL SYSTEM LET HER DOWN

TWENTY months have passed since an optometrist decided to refer a small Gold Coast child to a children’s hospital in Brisbane for corrective surgery that will save the sight in a girl’s eye.

Even the least urgent cases are dealt with inside a year, yet this child has been left to wait — and it now seems the fault stems from an administrative error somewhere.

How tragic it will be if Scarlett Godden does end up losing the sight in her eye because that important referral in December 2015, and another one a month later, became lost somewhere in a system that, frankly, confounds the public.

The hows and whys of this situation are important and must be answered so that such a mix-up does not happen in the future.

But what is of most urgency right now is surgery to correct the condition that could affect the child’s sight.

It is a damning indictment on the public health system that her parents, after waiting and waiting, and knowing that if the public system let them down they would struggle to find the money to pay for the operation, had given up on what is supposed to be the safety net for each and every one of us.

These proud people had to resort to pleading for help from other, ordinary people in the community, and were not disappointed.

Caring members of the public have pledged financial assistance, which is a sign that where bureaucracies and governments regularly fail to measure up, the real strength of any community lies not in the so-called leaders and pillars, but the little people.

When the Bulletin approached the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital about Scarlett’s case, wheels began turning.

Searches were conducted but there was no record of any referral.

The paper was assured that if the optometrist were to send the original or a new referral, all stops would be pulled out for the patient.

That is heartening, but it should not have reached this point.