AN investigation is underway after revelations almost 50,000 X-rays taken at public hospitals on the Gold Coast have not been properly checked.
The investigation will examine what Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has called a long-running failure of a system designed to pick up undiagnosed medical conditions.
The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Board says it is aware of at least two patients who suffered adverse effects as a result of the failure.
It said it was aware there were problems with the checking procedures, but the extent of it did not become clear until late last week.
About 22,000 X-rays have been earmarked for priority review.
In Queensland, all X-rays are required to be double checked by radiologists.
The process is intended to confirm a treating doctor’s diagnosis, such as a broken bone, for example.
But it is also intended as a safety net, with radiologists tasked with looking for other signs of illness beyond the condition the tests were ordered for.
The board’s patient safety spokeswoman Colette McCool said board members were aware there was a problem with the process, and had ordered a report on the matter.
But the scope of the problem, and the huge backlog of tests not properly checked, had come as a shock.
“We’d been advised that it was an issue over the last six months or so, but the magnitude of it wasn’t realised until last Thursday,” she told reporters on Monday.
The board’s chief executive Ron Calvert said previous efforts to fix the problem had failed.
“Our efforts to remedy the situation have stumbled. We make mistakes. It happens,” he said.
“Our job is to make sure when we make these mistakes we are open and transparent about it and we learn from it and improve.”
Mr Calvert said any patients found to have secondary problems would be contacted.
He said he’d allocated $1.4 million in additional funds to specifically address the issue.
The health minister has ordered an investigation into the lapse, which involves 48,000 X-rays taken since 2013.
Mr Springborg said he had been advised the problem was isolated to the Gold Coast, but the inquiry would look at checking procedures across the state.
He said external checks would be carried out, at least in the short to medium term, to make sure all X-rays taken at the Gold Coast University and Robina hospitals were properly checked.
“Delays and backlogs in this system cannot be permitted,” he said in a statement.