Queensland Health has today released the Executive Summary and Recommendations from the report on the Part 9 health service investigation which focused on the standard of endoscopies performed by two doctors at Redland Hospital between 2008 and 2018.
The investigation was commissioned after Metro South Health identified that the two doctors performed procedures that did not consistently meet the expected standards of care.
We extend our sincere apologies for any concern or distress caused to the patients, families and carers who were impacted by these issues.
Providing high quality and safe care is our number one priority.
Patients who were impacted have been contacted and their procedures repeated where necessary.
These doctors no longer work for Redland Hospital or Queensland Health.
We welcome the recommendations of the health service investigation conducted by Queensland Health.
Metro South Health accepts all of the recommendations made to the health service and the majority of these have already been implemented.
We have made significant improvements to our endoscopy services at Redland Hospital since 2018.
These include:
- Reinforcing ‘speaking up for safety’ processes to ensure all staff know how to report concerns. Specific procedures and training have been put in place to ensure that all employees, regardless of their position, know how to report any concerns about clinical care.
- Introducing a dedicated patient safety officer position at Redland Hospital, which provides a further layer of incident review and compliance with reporting.
- A new governance structure for the Endoscopy Unit including a new dedicated Deputy Director of Endoscopy who reports through to the hospital’s Executive team and has strong connections with surgical colleagues across the health service.
- The introduction of standard endoscopy performance measures across the health service, including a quarterly report on each individual endoscopist, measuring their performance against peers and benchmarks.
- A dedicated, Metro South Health-wide team that performs audits on patient outcomes, including a specific audit on endoscopies.
- Improvements in consumer engagement including the addition of patient representatives on the hospital’s key governance meetings and the establishment of a separate consumer advisory group which seeks input and feedback on hospital operations and initiatives.
We will continue to review the findings of the investigation to identify any further opportunities for improvement.
We want to assure the community we are absolutely committed to providing high quality services at Redland Hospital.
If you have any questions or concerns, please phone 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84) or contact the Redland Hospital Consumer Liaison Service on CLS_Bayside@health.qld.gov.au