Hospital workers have rallied outside Perth Children’s Hospital calling for the state government and the hospital's executive team to be held accountable for the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath.
The unions representing medical workers, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), organised the rally on Tuesday to demand changes to Western Australia's hospital system and to support staff facing scrutiny over Aishwarya's death.
The young girl's parents brought her to PCH on 3 April, but their repeated requests for medical attention were not escalated. Aishwarya died of sepsis from Group A streptococcus later that night.
Her death prompted an internal inquiry by the WA Child and Adolescent Health Services (CAHS), which identified a litany of clinical errors, including a failure by hospital staff to complete a triage assessment or examine Aishwarya’s worsening symptoms.
SBS News understands two nurses and a doctor who were directly involved with Aishwarya's treatment at PCH have subsequently been referred to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) - the regulatory body for registered health professionals.
But AMA WA President Dr Andrew Miller on Tuesday told the rally he was "disgusted" to hear the actions of hospital staff would be scrutinised by the regulatory body.
“They’re brave young people who go to work and try and do the best they can. They’re not always perfect,” Dr Miller told the rally.
“I hope they know they have your support …we hope to get through that ridiculous legal hurdle very quickly so they can return to work and learn how to be better at what they do and look after more kids in the future.”
Dr Miller has since referred WA Health Director General David Russell-Weisz and CAHS Chief Executive Aresh Anwar to APHRA to ensure "all levels" of the hospital system are scrutinised over the incident.
Source: Aaron Fernandes/SBS News
“We’ve reported them for justice and equity and so that if there is an inquiry, it will be a complete inquiry,” he said.
Aishwarya's parents did not attend Tuesday's rally, but a family spokesperson said the call for greater accountability had their support.
“Our position was that we feel there are some serious systemic issues that need to be addressed and they can’t be addressed by scapegoating or isolating two nurses and a doctor,” the spokesperson, Suresh Rajan said.
“(Aishwarya's parents believe) that every person, from the minister down to those nurses, who were responsible for their daughter’s death need to be held to account.”
Both the AMA and the ANF say Western Australia’s health system is struggling with ambulance ramping, staff shortages and poor staff-to-patient ratios.
The WA government has repeatedly denied that staffing shortages played a role in Aishwarya’s treatment and death.
Following the six-week CAHS inquiry and the referrals to AHPRA, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is also expected to conduct an inquiry into Aishwarya’s death.
SBS News understands Aishwarya’s family has referred both the PCH executive management team and the clinical staff to AHPRA over the incident.
'Systemic issues need to be addressed'
SBS News spoke with a doctor at Tuesday's rally who is currently a registrar with the CAHS but wished to remain anonymous.
“I was absolutely heartbroken (when Aishwarya died), not only for the family hut for colleagues that were involved. We care so deeply for our patients,” she said.
She said it's "quite clear" there are systemic issues that need to be addressed.
“I’m frustrated by seeing doctors and nurses chronically over worked, under resourced and under appreciated," she said.
ANF state secretary Mark Olson called for WA Health Minister Roger Cook to drop all other portfolios and concentrate on health, while Dr Miller called on the minister to resign entirely.
“I still am saying to this minister, you have got to give up your other portfolios,” Mr Olson said.
Mr Cook accepted an invitation to address the rally on Tuesday, and told the crowd he recognised the system was “under pressure”.
“It is evident in what happened to Aishwarya…an incident that has pierced the heart of this state,” he said.
At times jeered by the crowd, Mr Cook pledged the the state government would provide an additional 500 hospital beds in the health system over the next four years and recruit an extra 600 nurses over the next two years.
Mr Cook said the government would also implement a 10-point-plan proposed by the ANF, including the introduction of more nurses to the PCH emergency department and improving triage and resuscitation areas of the department.
Source: Aaron Fernandes/SBS News
But he also said he recognised morale was down after the death of Aishwarya and improvement was needed to the relationship between the hospital’s executive management team and frontline nurses.
“We know that the system needs fixing. We know that we need to address the culture. We know we need to address the relationship particularly between front line health workers and executive teams,” Mr Cook said.
