Under-fire NSW health minister praised by party colleagues for her handling of fatal hospital crises
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner was reportedly applauded by Premier Mike Baird and colleagues on the same day fatal scandals in the state's health system worsened.
The Australian reports Ms Skinner was showered in praise at a closed-door partyroom meeting for her handling of two severe issues within her portfolio regarding the fatal administration of nitrous oxide to a newborn and the prescription of incorrect drug dosages to chemotherapy patients, which proved fatal for some.
While members of the public were calling for the minister's sacking outside the room, inside members of the government gave Ms Skinner a "strong round of applause" for her performance, the newspaper reports.
The minister has been fending off calls for her resignation over the past month after it was revealed she attended an entertainment industry award ceremony despite having learned a baby had died at a western Sydney hospital after being given laughing gas instead of oxygen moments after his birth.
A newborn girl was also given the incorrect gas a month previously. Although she survived, she is expected to have severe brain damage.
In handing down initial findings of the investigation Tuesday, Ms Skinner said she "personally apologised" to the families for the "profound suffering caused" by the bungle.
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The minister also announced the engineer who installed the gas taps at the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital had been fired and all contracts with their employer Boc Limited were terminated.
Before Ms Skinner announced the sacking, The Australian reports her Liberal Party colleagues offered her their full support and said she was doing an excellent job as health minister.
A spokesman for Mr Baird declined to comment on the report, only telling the paper, “We don't comment on what occurs in partyroom, but Mrs Skinner has the full support and confidence of the premier."
Chemo scandal deepens
Following the partyroom meeting Ms Skinner prefaced more NSW chemotherapy patients could have been failed by the public health system, announcing a full review of the past five years of treatments after it emerged a second doctor is believed to have prescribed lower-than-recommended doses of treatment drugs.
Haematologist Dr Kiran Phadke gave inappropriate doses of chemotherapy drugs to his patients for as long as 13 years while at St George and Sutherland hospitals in Sydney's south, Ms Skinner revealed on Tuesday.
At least three patients were affected.
Two are now dead while investigations are continuing into 14 other cases.
The revelation came as the final report on St Vincent's senior oncologist Dr John Grygiel found he gave more than 100 head and neck cancer patients the wrong dose of chemotherapy drugs.
Other names are expected to be added to the victims' list when a report into Dr Grygiel's time at Bathurst and Orange Hospitals is released in September.
Gas company denies it's to blame for wrong gas lines
A blame game has erupted over the fatal oxygen mix-up at Bankstown-Lidcomb Hospital.
A report released on Tuesday found the affected pipe was installed and certified by industrial gas contractor BOC Limited in July 2015 after an oxygen bottle ran out while a baby was being resuscitated.
However BOC says the original installation of the pipes was not conducted by its contractors.
"It was found during an inspection by police, hospital staff and BOC that both the medical oxygen and medical nitrous oxide pipelines were incorrectly labelled prior to BOC's work being undertaken at the hospital in July 2015," the company said.
The hospital engineer who was stood down was involved in the commissioning of the gas outlets.
The report has not yet identified whether any other hospital managers or staff contributed to the tragedy, and more statements are being collected.
The bungle was discovered two weeks ago after a paediatrician raised concerns about baby John Ghanem's death on July 13, with the families of both babies notified last weekend.
A full report is due by August 25.
News break – August 3
