The family of a Pambula Beach woman who died from aggressive uterine cancer after being misdiagnosed at South East Regional Hospital said it seems like health district bosses are covering up things.
Simone Crerar was 56 when she died at home in July last year after being told she only had fibroids. Her death was only three months after first presenting to the hospital for tests. She was not referred for any further follow up by her GP despite her symptoms quickly escalating.
Simone passed away just a few days before she was due to be taken by family up to Canberra to see a specialist for a second opinion.
The family have been demanding answers since, but Simone’s brother Scott says they don’t want to be transparent.
“We haven’t been engaged. There’s been a lack of communication. Responsiveness is totally underwhelming of an agency that is supposed to be taking the complaint seriously there’s been no evidence of any progress that they have actually done an investigation and come to any sort of outcomes,” he said.
Scott and his brother Stephen has accused Southern NSW Local Health District of stonewalling the family. The brothers have just written again to Southern NSW Local Health District Chief Executive Margaret Bennett and demanded answers after hearing nothing since September last year.
“They’ve been totally unresponsive to our questions of what processes they’ve undertaken, what was the outcome of the Serious Incident Review, have they actually conducted the independent assessment of the scan?’ Scott said.
“To this date we’ve received no information that they’ve done any of those things,” he said.
The family state they have no idea if Southern NSW Local Health District has even carried out recommendations from the Coroner.
“The Coroner’s assistant verbally said to us that there were obvious signs of malignant cancer in Simone’s scans and in the formal report by the Coroner it recommended that the CT scans be independent assessed by another expert,” Mr Crerar said.
“To date there’s no evidence that the Southern Local District has done this,” he said.
The family is motivated to get answers from local health bureaucrats to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“We’re concerned that there may be a broader issue here around their diagnostic services,” Mr Crerar said
“We want to know what’s happened,” he said.
“This is about having stronger diagnostic safeguards and better outcomes within the broader public health system.
“It’s not just about our sister Simone sadly who was misdiagnosed.”
We have asked the LHD 16 detailed questions in writing about their handling of this case and requested an interview with Ms Bennett. This has been acknowledged and we are waiting for a response.
