Health Minister: ‘System has failed’
IN AN emotional address, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has conceded the state has failed remote Indigenous children suffering from rheumatic heart disease.
At the delayed launch of a $7.38m investment to end the preventable disease on Wednesday, Ms D’Ath responded to the deaths of Adele Sandy, Betty Booth, and Shayaka George, who were turned away from the Doomadgee health centre before dying of rheumatic heart disease.
“We failed these kids, the system, the whole system,” Ms D’Ath said.
“I’m not going to criticise the health workers at Doomadgee. They do an incredibly hard job. But this system failed.” Statewide, $4.5m will be spent during a three-year period and 10 northern Queensland communities most severely affected will receive $2.88m for “specific actions”.
“I want to make sure (funding) is actually delivering services,” she said.
“We need First Nations health workers on the ground, going into these communities, educating the communities.”
Ms D’Ath stopped short of guaranteeing patients presenting to remote health centres with rheumatic heart disease symptoms would receive vital signs observations.
Cairns mum Lynette Bullio has an 11-year-old son who has needed painful penicillin injections after being diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease aged seven.
“It’s like you’ve been hit by a truck and you don’t know what to do. It turns your world upside down,” she said.
“It does make me angry. But moving forward, we’ve got to try and eradicate this disease that shouldn’t be happening.”