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2010 Mar 25 (Thu)

Patient Safety Report

Kevin questions the Minister of Health and Wellness on what actions will be taken to address the problems described in the independent report on Alberta Children's hospital.

 

572 Alberta Hansard Monday March 22, 2010

Dr. Taft: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Alberta Health Services finally released the independent report into incidents at the Alberta Children’s hospital. The report suggests a picture of a physician with a chronically difficult personality overruling a nurse and ordering her to give a small child a potentially life-threatening dose of painkiller. The management of the Children’s hospital appears to have failed to prevent the situation even though warning signs had accumulated. To the minister of health: if this situation can happen at the Children’s hospital, what is the minister doing to ensure that it is not happening elsewhere?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, there are about 80 recommendations in that Health Quality Council report which was released on Thursday. I can assure you that Alberta Health Services is doing everything within their powers and in their capacity to address not only those four incidents but other recommendations that will help prevent those kinds of incidents in the future.

Dr. Taft: Well, the minister has said that he has read the report cover to cover. He’ll know, then, that this report uses some pretty startling language such as “ineffective,” not inappropriate, “not respectful,” and on page 28 speaks of “disruptive behaviour by physicians that interferes with the provision of safe patient care.” Given that five months have passed, have policies been put in place in those five months to fix the problem?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if that exact section has yet been addressed and implemented, but I can tell you that immediately upon receiving the report, even before it was made public,

staff, professional providers, and others at the Alberta Children’s hospital acted immediately on areas where they could, and a lot of those recommendations were implemented almost right at that time.

Dr. Taft: Mr. Speaker, given that it’s clear from the report that there is a particular physician whose behaviour has contributed heavily to the problems with a large overdose of painkillers to a very small child and given that this behaviour appears to be ongoing, has the minister ordered any special measures be taken to deal with this particular physician?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, no, I haven’t. If it’s an issue of that gravity, then there is certainly a mechanism in place, and it’s called a complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. They are the ones who deal with doctor discipline and actions against doctors or comments about performance or diagnoses or whatever it might be.

 

 

Date: Thu Mar 25 21:40:31 MDT 2010 Author: Rebecca IP: 68.149.137.22