Report from Australia
Abstract
In Queensland Australia we have been the focus of two major inquiries into our public health system – Queensland Health. The basis for one of the inquiries (a Royal Commission) was the alleged activities of an overseas trained doctor in a rural town. Allegedly he was responsible for several adverse patient outcomes, some of which resulted in the death of patients. As a result of a nurse who decided to ‘blow the whistle’, an initial inquiry into the work of that doctor was established. That Royal Commission has yet to report its findings. However, a systems review was also established – called the Forster Inquiry – and I was a member of the rural and remote advisory panel to this inquiry.Author Biography
Desley Hegney
Head, Discipline of Nursing
School of Population Health
and Professor and Chair of Nursing Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth