The South Australian Government has ordered an inquiry into a chemotherapy drug bungle at two Adelaide hospitals after earlier saying it was not in the “wider public interest”.
Health Minister Jack Snelling said on Saturday that 10 cancer patients were given inadequate doses of the drug Cytarabine during their treatment due to a typographical error on hospital documents.
The mistakes occurred at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre in the latter half of 2014.
Mr Snelling today confirmed that one of the 10 affected patients continued to receive an incorrect dose at the Flinders Medical Centre three days after the computer system error was detected.
He said he was only notified of the latest “unacceptable” development last night and now regrets his comments to media on Monday that the issue was not in the “wider public interest”.
“In the light of that new information, I’ve asked Professor Villus Marshall AC to conduct an investigation into how this happened, why this happened, but in particular why it was that after the mistake was detected someone still received an incorrect dose of chemo,” Mr Snelling said.
The State Government earlier declared the issue fixed and said new protocols were in place to prevent incorrect doses of drugs from being administered.
Mr Snelling said he had ordered an inquiry into the matter.
“There’s no doubt that this has only come to light because this whole issue has become public and, you know, I certainly acknowledge that we probably made the wrong call,” he said.
The patient is reported to be devastated and seeking legal compensation.