In Australia, shadow minister reports death of Mildura hospital patient
In Australia, Victoria’s shadow health minister Georgie Crozier said that one of the patients at Mildura Base Public Hospital in Mildura who was not triaged in time had died. According to ABC News Australia, up to 150 patients may have waited for medical care for more than a year because boxes of paper referrals were forgotten.
Review of paper referrals
Crozier said the affected patients were not triaged and did not receive diagnostics, specialist consultations or proper timely care. The hospital identified the problem during clinical governance and patient safety monitoring procedures and reported the cases to Safer Care Victoria in line with its obligations.
Mildura Base Public Hospital acting chief executive Matt Jukes declined to comment on the forgotten paper referrals. At the same time, he said the facility was working with Safer Care Victoria and the health department to identify and review possible gaps in service delivery. According to ABC, the hospital also contacted patients affected by the situation.
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Transition to electronic medical records
In 2023, the hospital and the Victorian government committed to digitising 200,000 patient medical records over four years. The introduction of electronic medical records in Mildura, Echuca and Swan Hill was estimated at $14 million.
Three years later, Jukes said that the hospital’s inpatient medical records had still not been digitised and that additional funding and time were needed to complete the transition. A Victorian government spokesperson described the implementation of electronic medical records as a complex, multi-year transformation and said the Loddon Mallee EMR program was ongoing.
A medical student at the hospital, who spoke anonymously to ABC, described the current hybrid paper-based system as dangerous. Simon Judkins, president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association, suggested that possible failures in Mildura could have been linked to high turnover among temporary staff unfamiliar with the facility’s procedures.
