The external review,announced by hospital provider Ramsay Health Care on Thursday,is aimed at identifying areas for improvement in services and will be undertaken by independent specialists from the eastern states.
Sanderson has vowed to look into declining bulk billing rates.9 News Perth
It is understood the review will take several months and assess the staffing cohort of paediatric services.
The news comes amid revelations hospital staff did not believe 10-year-old Olivia Bakranic-Fowler had been bitten by a tiger snake last month,forcing her mother to travel to Perth Children’s Hospital for anti-venom.
The story emerged one week after the parents of 21-month-old Sandipan claimed their son died of leukemia after the hospital repeatedly refused their requests to run blood tests for his ongoing fever.
Sanderson said she believed the review,and the inclusion of a consumer representative from the Department of Health,was the appropriate course of action and that she still had full confidence the operator was running a solid health service.
She said that while the two cases were distinctly different,it was clear there were consistencies in that the parents of both children did not feel listened to.
“It is my view as a parent,as the minister,that parents’ concerns need to be seriously taken into consideration,” she said.
“Parents know their children better,and they generally know if it’s a sniffle or an underlying virus or something more serious.
“My priority is getting a good quality review and ensuring that the review is undertaken in circumstances where both consumers and clinicians are able to be honest,and we can get some genuine and meaningful recommendations.”
While the Medicare Benefits Schedule remains the responsibility of the federal government,Sanderson said the state would also look at what could be done to support general practice in the Joondalup area.
The busy hospital is currently servicing a fast-growing region where bulk-billing services were almost non-existent.
Those in Perth’s northern suburbs have the least access to subsidised medical services in the state,with data from online healthcare directory Cleanbill showing bulk billing as a practice has almost ceased to exist in the federal electorate of Moore.
Just over 9 per cent of the clinics from Trigg to Burns Beach and east to Joondalup offer fully subsidised services,with the average out-of-pocket cost per appointment sitting at $79.83.
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