Western Australia’s Health Minister has apologised to the family of a toddler whose chemotherapy treatment at Perth’s Princess Margaret Hospital was delayed due to a lack of available beds.
Sean Gray said despite having booked his 16-month-old son Flynn a chemotherapy appointment last Tuesday, he was only admitted to hospital on Sunday afternoon when a bed was free.
Mr Gray, who lives in Perth, said during another chemotherapy session at the hospital in January, his infection-prone son was placed in a shared room left in an unsanitary condition.
Health Minister Kim Hames said it was “a less than satisfactory situation”.
“For the parents who’ve got a child who has a significant medical problem that is probably every bit as serious as having cancer, it is a very serious medical condition, it would have been very distressing to the family having that problem and I apologise to them on my own behalf and on behalf of the hospital,” he said..
“There was another patient in the next bed and there were some issues around that that lead to issues of cleanliness.”
Dr Hames said the hospital denied Mr Gray’s claim there were faeces on the walls of the toilet in the room.
He said the hospital also denied his claim that the cleaner refused to mop up the mess.
“The cleaner has reported that she cleaned up as best she could,” he said.
“Every effort is made by the hospital to give patients the best possible outcome and it’s unfortunate in this case that did not occur.”
No risk from delaying treatment: Minister
Dr Hames said the hospital did not put Flynn at risk by delaying his treatment session.
“It wasn’t urgent because it’s not like cancer where you have to have therapy within a specific space of time, so a mild delay was not going to cause any change in the medical prognosis or conditions of that child,” he said.
“There were no single rooms. The hospital, where possible, tries to find a single room for children with conditions like this.
“As happens in Princess Margaret Hospital, numbers go up and down.
“At times the hospital is full and at times it may only be 70 per cent full, but for that week it was full.”
Mr Gray also said he feared the standard of service at Princess Margaret Hospital was declining due to the impending completion of the new Perth Children’s Hospital, due to open in November.
Dr Hames said he disagreed but conceded PMH has “passed its best time”.
“The health budget has risen significantly and budgets for all our hospitals have risen significantly, but remember, this is an ageing facility, that’s why we are spending $1.2 billion on a brand new state of the art hospital,” he said.
“The reason we’re doing it is because the old hospital has passed its best time.”