Ms O’CONNOR – Minister, I know that this topic has come up a couple of times this morning, and the honourable member for Nelson has asked you some questions about it, but I did flag that we would ask also again. As you know, in June of this year, the report of the review into reportable deaths at the Launceston General Hospital was handed down. It found numerous issues with death reporting practices undertaken by Dr Peter Renshaw and referred 29 deaths to the Coroner. But the review mainly only looked at matters that occurred between 2020 and 2022.
Since then ABC reporter Lucy Macdonald has published an article where multiple staff raised concerns related to deaths that occurred prior to 2020. What is the department doing to review these cases and will you be ensuring that every death Dr Renshaw was involved with is subject to a review?
Mr BARNETT – Thank you very much for the question, and I absolutely note your question and the reference to the independent panel which we set up immediately. We were made aware of that and I was very supportive of that. They have given their report and recommendations, we have acted on it. The Department has acted swiftly in terms of those recommendations for a broader investigation pre-2019. I will ask the acting secretary –
Ms O’CONNOR – 2020, yes.
Mr BARNETT – Yes. I will ask the acting secretary to speak to that and indicate – I think he has touched on it already a little bit earlier.
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes.
Mr BARNETT – But if you could outline what measures are being taken to address those concerns?
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, thank you.
Mr WEBSTER – So through you, minister. We examined deaths from 2019 to 2023 in the reportable deaths process, plus any others where an individual came forward and identified a case. It wasn’t we did all of them in the timeframe but had other cases as well.
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes.
Mr WEBSTER – But as I mentioned, in answer to Ms Webb’s question, we are taking one of our very senior doctors offline, working direct to the CMO to do these audit processes. They will go back prior to 2019 to check our processes, as well as making sure they check some of the forward cases to make sure we are continuing to do what we are committed to do. Which is follow through on these processes.
When a death meets the criteria that the Coroner has told us must be reported, then we will report it, making sure that the correct person is reporting to Births, Deaths and Marriages. But in addition to that, you know, that our culture is right that the doctors are actually signing off on deaths appropriately.
Ms O’CONNOR – So deaths through the Launceston General Hospital that Dr Renshaw was involved with prior to 2019, will there be an assessment of his decision making around those deaths and advice to the Coroner’s Office as well?
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister. The process prior to 2019 is very manual, so we will do all we can to identify cases that can be audited and where they should have been reported to the coroner we will do that, but we will do that, again, through a process of assessment against the criteria.
Ms O’CONNOR – Finally, Chair, will there be, minister, a report back on this process? I know you could answer a question in parliament or something like that, but there might be a better, proactive way of helping to restore the faith of Tasmanians following this terrible incident.
Mr BARNETT – Yes. Can I just say certainly I take it seriously, and I know the government does. I appreciate your interest in it and there are others in the community that have a special interest. We are being very thorough about this. The panel has made recommendations, we have followed through on that. We have obviously made referrals to the coroner pre-2019, you know, the manual audits of those medical records. That will take time, and it is a very senior doctor who is undertaking that work, feeding back to the chief medical officer. In terms of the reporting, I will pass to the acting secretary.
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister, and as we have discussed we want to make sure that is transparent, because it is how we actually verify our culture. Yes, we want to make it – whether it is a report or something in our annual report, we will make sure that it is actually out there as publicly as we can.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, thank you.
