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The father of a young boy who died in a Perth emergency department says a coronial inquest has vindicated the family’s claim that they pleaded with doctors for a blood test that could have saved their son, but did not address the accountability issues that persisted at Joondalup Health Campus.
Speaking at his family home in Butler on Monday, Sanjoy Dhar vowed to continue fighting for more accountability of the state’s hospitals and doctors in an emotional address where he said his son Sandipan was robbed of the opportunity of growing up and becoming an extraordinary person.
“We are quite aware that we will never get Sandipan back. That incident totally destroyed our lives. We might have a different plan for our future. Now we have a separate plan for our future,” he said.
“My son could have been the prime minister of Australia. My son could be whatever you can think, but he did not get any chance to prove what he could have been.”
Sandipan died in the emergency department at Ramsay Health Care’s Joondalup Health Campus on March 24, 2024, due to complications from undiagnosed acute blastoma leukemia, a curable blood cancer identifiable with a blood test.
He had been exhibiting fever symptoms for about 20 days prior. Staff at the hospital believed he had viral tonsillitis.
In her findings released Friday, Acting State Coroner Sarah Linton determined Sandipan could have been saved had he had a blood test when he presented to the hospital two days prior.
She also backed Dhar’s consistent position that he repeatedly requested hospital staff conduct a blood test on March 22, but did not make a finding that the supervising ED consultant doctor on that day, Dr Yii Siow, should have conducted the blood test.
The inquest delved into the blood test question in depth, revealing that the Dhars arrived at the ED that day with a GP referral requesting a blood test as part of a sepsis screen.
Siow told the inquiry she did not read the referral, instead relying on another doctor to distil the information to her.
Siow said, with the benefit of hindsight, she would have read the letter herself, which might have alerted her to the fact the GP was concerned about sepsis. However, she said her position on the test would have been the same.
In her findings, Linton said Siow should have read the letter.
Joondalup Health Campus and its owner, Ramsay Healthcare, and AHPRA has cleared Siow and other staff involved in Sandipan’s care of any wrongdoing.
Dhar said he did not have any issue with any particular person involved in his son’s care, but said it sent the wrong message to other health professionals when there was no accountability.
The inquest made six recommendations, including five related to Joondalup Health Campus, specifically around improving escalation of concerns around sepsis and follow-ups when patients are discharged.
Dhar has run into brick walls, with two petitions lodged with an upper house committee to look into accountability in WA hospitals and the Joondalup Health Campus contract.
He said he wanted that upper house committee to reconsider those requests, and he took particular aim at WA Premier Roger Cook over the government renewing its contract with Ramsay Healthcare to run the Joondalup Health Campus.
“Premier Roger Cook, even after that incident, why has the state government extended that contract with Ramsay Healthcare for another 15 years? Why is this public contract not accessible to anyone?”
Family advocate Suresh Rajan said the Joondalup Health Campus contract allowed Ramsay to decide when it would conduct its own internal investigations into incidents like Sandipan’s death, which needed to change.
“I don’t care whether that hospital is a private hospital or public hospital, I expect a certain standard of healthcare, and if that’s not being met, they should be held accountable for the level at which they’re providing that service now,” he said.
On Saturday, Ramsay Health Care State Manager (WA) Dr James Cafaro said Joondalup Health Campus accepted the Coroner’s findings and recommendations in full.
Cafaro said Joondalup Health Campus had made a number of significant changes to how paediatric patients were assessed and treated in the emergency department, and improved communication with their families.
“Many of the changes we have made have been as a result of the Dhar family’s feedback, and we thank them for their bravery in helping shape our approach,” he said.
Dhar was sceptical of Ramsay’s response.
“They don’t care what we think, because for them, it’s a number, and that was my question to the coronial inquest, that my son should not remain as a number,” he said.
“I will not let him remain as a number, because I left my soul on 24th of March, 2024, in Joondalup Hospital, I cannot let them do whatever they want.”
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