The Health News – 06 May 2015

Overview

• A tender for the design and construction of the Palmerston Regional Hospital has been released.

• A Central Queensland surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a patient was denied natural justice when authorities investigated him, a judge has found.

• Overnight staff in a western Victoria hospital got a shock when a koala marched into the emergency department.

Health News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 6TH May 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/tender-released-forpalmerston-regional-hospital-construction/6447602

A tender for the design and construction of the Palmerston Regional Hospital has been released.

It comes after the Northern Territory Government copped heat on Monday for not yet having locked in a final design or construction company.
It was forced to deny millions of dollars in Commonwealth funding was on the line.
A deadline in a funding agreement with the Federal Government requires construction to begin this month — a milestone that is linked to a progress payment worth $35 million.
Northern Territory Health Minister John Elferink on Monday struggled to pinpoint when a tender for the construction project would be issued.
“In the next couple of weeks is what I’m assured,” Mr Elferink said.
“I sit in on the meetings on a regular basis to ensure the various departments involved are all doing their job and meeting time lines.”
Hours later, the tender was released.
Under the tender, construction of the hospital is slated to start in October this year and Mr Elferink has denied that timeline puts Commonwealth payments in jeopardy.
His federal counterpart, Health Minister Sussan Ley, has made it clear progress payments are linked to milestones.
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The $150 million Palmerston Regional Hospital — $110 million of which is coming from the Federal Government — was a major election promise by the Country Liberal Party when it came to power in August 2012.
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Despite taking nearly 1,000 days to get to the tendering stage, the Northern Territory Government requires the hospital to be finished in design and built in 885 days, a fact not missed by the Opposition’s Natasha Fyles.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/antonio-vega-cega-denied-natural-justice-rockhampton-surgeon/6446976

A Central Queensland surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a patient was denied natural justice when authorities investigated him, a judge has found.

Urologist Dr Antonio Vega Vega was stood down from the Rockhampton hospital a year ago.
Following an appeal, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal allowed him to practice again, saying he posed no serious threat to the public.
He has since been working in private hospitals.
Dr Vega Vega was also the subject of internal reviews, but launched legal action in February to have those reports quashed on the grounds he was denied natural justice.
His lawyers argued the investigation was biased and that they had been prevented from accessing documents relating to 58 witnesses.
Brisbane Justice Anne Lyons agreed on Tuesday that Dr Vega Vega had been denied natural justice.
She also ruled that reports delivered to the director-general were invalid.
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The court has not yet made a ruling on costs.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/koala-walks-into-hospital-in-western-victoria/6446050

Overnight staff in a western Victoria hospital got a shock when a koala marched into the emergency department.

The koala was caught on security cameras on April 20 and the video was posted on the hospital’s website.
The animal was “very casual, very relaxed” according Western District Health’s chief executive Rohan Fitzgerald.
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The animal, nicknamed Blinky Bill, was unable to go into clinical areas which were “secure”.
At one point the koala approaches a door, which does not open so he wandered off into another room before trying to get out again.
Hospital staff saw him walking around but just decided to leave him alone.
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Mr Fitzgerald said the koala had become a bit of a media sensation and the story had been picked up by several media outlets in the United States.
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