© Zoonar GmbH/AlamyAustralian Associated PressFILE: Shannon Fentiman has ordered a clinical review into Queensland's perinatal death rate.
A lack of cardiac surgery facilities may have contributed to the deaths of four babies at Adelaide's Women's and Children's hospital over the past month, a South Australian parliamentary committee has been told, prompting calls for an inquiry.
The obstetrician John Svigos told the committee on Tuesday that
Adelaide was the only mainland capital where paediatric cardiac surgery was not available, which meant critically ill infants and children had to be transferred interstate.
He was aware of three deaths in the past four weeks, he said, while the Salaried Medical Officers Association industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said there had been another death last week.
The evidence prompted the committee chair and upper house MP, Connie Bonaros, to call for an independent investigation into the deaths and any others that might be linked to the lack of cardiac surgery facilities.
"The current situation is completely and utterly unacceptable and reprehensible," Bonaros said. "It breaks my heart to hear explosive claims that young babies and children are potentially dying unnecessarily at the hospital.
"It is shameful that Adelaide is the only mainland city in the land without such a unit, but it is even more disgusting that babies are allegedly dying because of it."
Bonaros said Svigos had indicated
the deaths might have been "avoidable" had the surgery unit been available.
The surgery services were shut down in 2002 but a review is now under way.
Comment: RT provides reports that Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, is attempting to
deflect the blame:
Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews has denied claims that his Covid-19 restrictions played a role in the tragic deaths of four newborns who failed to receive urgent medical care, contradicting testimony from a government inquiry.
Four babies died in Adelaide, South Australia in the past four weeks after they could not be airlifted to Melbourne's Royal Children's hospital, purportedly due to the draconian measures imposed on the city by Andrews. The four newborns needed emergency heart surgery that they apparently couldn't receive treatment for locally.
The South Australian parliament's public health services committee held an inquiry on Tuesday to determine why the babies didn't receive the care they needed. A professor who testified at the hearing said that due to Melbourne's coronavirus restrictions, transporting patients to the hospital was "no longer tenable." One of the four deaths was reported to the committee shortly after the inquest.
The Australian newspaper reported the families of the infants were told that their children were not permitted to enter Victoria for the operations under the state's strict stage-four lockdown rules.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Andrews deflected blame for the newborns' deaths. He said that his government's health authorities told him that they did not prevent the children from being transported to Melbourne.
"I don't think it is a matter of restrictions," he said, claiming "there was a choice not at our end, but the other end for them not to be sent."
Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital said in a statement that its pediatric cardiac surgery services are currently under review, and promised that "South Australian children will always have access to the health services they need."
The deaths of the four newborns have sparked outrage across Australia. In an on-air screed, Sky News Australia host Paul Murray lashed out at the "failures of South Australian government" and the "incompetence of the Victorian government," and said it was "outrageous" that a developed country such as Australia was incapable of saving the children's lives.
Melbourne has endured one of the world's longest lockdowns, with residents prohibited from traveling more than 25km (15.5 miles) to carry out essential activities such as grocery shopping. Stay-at-home orders in place until November 2 place tight limitations on permitted reasons to go out.
Earlier this month, 500 doctors in Australia penned a letter urging the Victorian government to reconsider the stringent measures, describing them as "disproportionate and unscientific."
With a population of 6.3 million people, Victoria registered three new positive coronavirus tests in the past twenty-four hours, with the total number of cases standing at 20,323. No new deaths were reported.
The evidence coming in from countries all over the world is that lockdowns are killing a great many more people than even the
exaggerated government figures claim died from Covid-19:
And check out SOTT radio's:
Comment: RT provides reports that Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, is attempting to deflect the blame: The evidence coming in from countries all over the world is that lockdowns are killing a great many more people than even the exaggerated government figures claim died from Covid-19:
- UK's lockdown could cause extra 35,000 extra cancer deaths due to delayed diagnosis and treatment
- First, Do No Harm: If Primary Healthcare Remains Shut Down, Toll on Elderly Will be Worse Than COVID-19
- Excess death oddities in South Africa
- UK gov figures show 75,000 could die because of lockdown, excess deaths are already soaring
And check out SOTT radio's: