The McGowan Government has announced the make-up of the independent panel which will inquire into the Emergency Department at Perth Children's Hospital.
The inquiry, to be conducted by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), follows the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath in the hospital's ED on April 3, 2021.
Under its terms of reference, the panel will focus on specific factors that contributed to Aishwarya's death but will also investigate the functions and operations of the ED and the hospital's approach to clinical governance, risk and adverse incidents.
The inquiry panel, nominated by the Commission, includes medical and nursing leads with significant experience in paediatric emergency medicine and members with experience in clinical governance, medical administration and safety investigations.
It is being led by Emeritus Professor Les White, a paediatric oncologist and academic who was Executive Director of Sydney Children's Hospital from 1995 to 2010. He was also inaugural NSW Chief Paediatrician (2010-2016) and President of Children's Hospitals Australasia from 1999 to 2004.
Other members of the panel are:
- Professor Carolyn Hullick - emergency physician, specialist in clinical governance for Hunter New England Health Service and Clinical Director at the Commission;
- Kylie Stark - registered nurse with 37 years of paediatric experience and 15 years experience managing a tertiary paediatric emergency department and the current Nurse Manager of Sydney Children's Hospital Emergency Department;
- Naomi Poole - Director, Strategy and Innovation at the Commission with a background in psychology, governance, leadership, health systems and policy design;
- Mike Wallace - the Commission's Chief Operating Officer since 2012 who has extensive experience in health management;
- Professor Gary Geelhoed - former Chief Medical Officer of WA, Director of the Emergency Department at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children for 22 years and current Chief Executive of the WA Health Translation Network; and
- Suresh Rajan - representing the Aswath family
Dr David Russell Weisz, Director General appointed the above members from the ACSQHC to conduct the inquiry under the provisions of the Health Services Act 2016.
The ACSQHC is the expert body established by the Commonwealth Government to lead and coordinate national improvements in the safety and quality of health care.
The inquiry will begin in June and is expected to take 10 weeks. Its findings will be tabled in each House of Parliament.
The Inquiry's terms of reference for the investigation are:
- Any matters raised by the Aswath family in relation to the care and treatment of their daughter;
- The conduct of the Root Cause Analysis (RCA), any issues identified by the RCA, and the recommendations made on the basis of those findings;
- The Emergency Department's staffing, patient flow model, clinical supervision and education programs (as recommended in the RCA);
- The culture of customer service within the ED in relation to children and their families, particularly those of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds;
- Roles and responsibilities of clinicians, management and the executive at PCH, and their escalation of issues to the Child and Adolescent Health Service Board;
- PCH's clinical incident management processes, including an assessment of previous SAC1 incidents to identify potentially preventable factors;
- PCH's clinical risk management processes;
- The performance of PCH in relation to safety and quality measures as compared to national peers.
As stated by Health Minister Roger Cook:
"We welcome the announcement of this panel which should provide important answers for both Aishwarya's family and the WA community.
"Members bring a wealth of expertise and experience and we thank them for being part of this important review."
