00:01An acknowledgement of failure at this major regional hospital.
00:06It was unacceptable and it should not have happened.
00:09From 2022 until July last year, Townsville Hospital and Health Service lost track of hundreds of urology patients.
00:17Having been seen, having had their details recorded, they weren't appropriately followed up.
00:22A report by Queensland Health found 576 urology patients experienced gaps in their care.
00:29Of those, 85% experienced minimal or no harm as a result.
00:34But there were six cases where patients had severe gaps in care.
00:38One of those patients died of bladder cancer in 2023 and another is currently in palliative care.
00:45That is clearly not good enough and we apologise for that occurring.
00:50According to the report, the hospital board knew about gaps in urological care as early as 2022,
00:55but didn't realise the seriousness of safety risks until three years later.
01:01Staff also detailed widespread fear of speaking up.
01:05Despite this, the chairman of the board will stay.
01:08The report is hard reading but we have accepted that and we are getting on with the job.
01:14Queensland Health has accepted the report's 27 recommendations, including the urgent recruitment of urologists
01:20and a special pathway to ensure high-risk patients are never lost.
01:25You would have thought that cancer and other important diagnoses that they make should never be lost in the first
01:31place.
01:32Why do we need a new pathway?
01:33The teams here have really done a lot of work over the last 12 months to improve our processes.
01:38The teams here have really done a lot of work over the last 12 months to improve our processes.
01:38The teachers here have really done a lot of work very well because only six months now.
01:40Seattle
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