The executive board of Djerriwarrh Health Services, which faces being sacked over seven avoidable baby deaths at the under siege Bacchus Marsh Hospital, is yet to plead its case to the state government.
The eight board members have until Friday to respond to Health Minister Jill Hennessy, who last week effectively said she had lost confidence in the hospital’s governance and planned to dump them over the scandal involving the western suburbs hospital’s maternity unit.
“It may be fair to say that had red flags been raised earlier some of these issues could have been addressed earlier,” she said last Friday.
“In 2013 there were seven perinatal deaths at Djerriwarrh, that’s double the number expected, yet this was overlooked by the clinical leaders and the board,” she said.
It was only in March this year that analysis by senior clinicians at the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity picked up the higher than average death rate at the regional hospital, which triggered a health department investigation.
That probe, made public last week, found the Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital’s practices could have contributed to seven of ten infant deaths over two years. It found hospital staff lacked proper training and were carrying out high-risk births that should have been referred to other hospitals.
The tragic deaths occurred while the obstetrics department was under the stewardship of Surinder Parhar, who has now been struck off the register and is understood to have left Australia.
Many more bereaved families have since come forward to reveal their babies died at the hospital and report serious concerns about the quality of patient care under Dr Parhar.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s Victorian branch has also slammed the culture of “fear and intimidation” at the hospital, with secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick saying staff were “strongly encouraged” not to report clinical risks.
She said she was surprised 11 nurses were being targeted as part of an investigation by the health practitioner’s regulator into hospital staff, including Dr Parhar and other doctors.
The health minister’s unusual step of flagging her intention to replace the board does not apply to John Ballard, a former Mercy Health chief executive, who was appointed earlier this year after the government became aware of the spate of deaths at the hospital.
Fairfax Media attempted to contact all current Djerriwarrh Health Services board members on Monday, but most failed to respond or refused to talk about the scandal.
The board’s president Claire Sutherland, who is also chairwoman of the local Bendigo Bank branch, is understood to be attending a wedding overseas. She is a former Ronald McDonald House charities chief executive and McDonalds restaurant franchisee.
Board member Sophie Ramsey, the mayor of Melton City Council, said she was prohibited from speaking publicly about the case but suggested the board’s fate was sealed. “That’s just standard operating procedures when you’re ministerially appointed onto a board and when you’re ministerially dismissed from a board,” she said.
Djerriwarrh Health Services treasurer John Payne, also a board member of the local Bendigo Bank, did not return calls to his office, while deputy treasurer Arthur Uren declined to comment.
Bacchus Marsh lawyer Pauline Madden said she quit her position on the board last month but refused to answer any other questions: “I resigned. I handed in my resignation on the ninth of September this year.”
Board member Helen Thompson, who is also the director of the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation at Federation University Australia, did not return calls on Monday.
The board’s vice president Eric Sharkey, board member Helen Dobson, and Djerriwarrh’s former chief executive Bruce Marshall, who was stood down after 17 years in the top job, could not be reached.
With Lucy Battersby