The tale of Yvette D’Ath’s rise in politics may be captivating, but her path in recent years has been far more treacherous. See the list of failures that ended her time as health minister.
The 52-year-old’s tenure as health minister is over, amid Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet carnage aimed at addressing the state government’s poisoned pain points: health, housing and youth justice.
Ms D’Ath leaves behind a portfolio littered with very public failures – something not lost on many couriermail.com.au readers.
HISTORY OF QLD HEALTH FAILURES UNDER D’ATH
D’ATH DANGER
The state Opposition in January 2023 slammed Health Minister Yvette D’Ath as “a failure” who should have been sacked “months ago” over Central Queensland’s maternity crisis.
It was reported expectant mums from Gladstone were so fearful of travelling to Rockhampton to give birth that they are demanding elective C-sections, and that the crisis had been labelled “a national disgrace”.
Ms Bates questioned why Gladstone Hospital could not recruit extra staff to ease the crisis.
“Is it because the doctors have no faith in the Queensland Health system at the moment or the Minister presiding over all of it?” LNP leader David Crisafulli said regional mothers were being forced to play “Russian roulette” by driving to Rockhampton to have their baby, risking a roadside birth.
FULL REPORT
Yvette D’Ath’s time as health minister was troubled. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell
SPINAL UNIT NEGLECT
Paralysed patients were left to lie in their own faeces, sit naked in front of other patients and had been subjected to aggressive bowel treatments at the state’s only spinal injury unit, whistleblowers claimed in April 2023.
Several former patients and 2021 Queenslander of the Year Dinesh Palipana, who is an emergency doctor, alleged neglect and degradation at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Dr Palipana, who was himself a patient at the PA’s Spinal Injuries Unit in 2010, described his treatment as “confronting” and raised concerns about the safety of patients and a perceived lack of respect for patient dignity.
He said there were even “grey areas around consent for intimate procedures”.
Dr Palipana, who works for Queensland Health and is a respected spinal injury advocate, said he was risking his job by speaking out about the treatment of patients and the conditions to which they were subjected.
“I feel that I must share these thoughts regardless, so that people with spinal cord injury can have a better experience in the future,” Dr Palipana said.
FULL REPORT
Loading embed…
CABOOLTURE HOSPITAL
The deaths of five babies – including one who suffered asphyxia and another whose mother had a delayed pregnancy complication diagnosis – were among 18 fatalities investigated at
Caboolture Hospital in November 2022.
Between January 1, 2020, and August 4, 2022, documents released showed all 18 cases were given a Severity Assessment Code 1 (SAC1), which triggers a detailed review when healthcare has resulted in “unanticipated serious harm or an unexpected death”.
Among the cases were five neonatal deaths, including one incident where there was a delay in recognising that a mother had pre-eclampsia.
Caboolture was among the hospitals that faced issues in recent years.
In another case in 2021, there was an “unexpected neonatal complication” that involved a “birth asphyxia”.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said she had been advised that none of the SAC1 obstetric incidents referred to in the RTI were due to malpractice by hospital staff or any “blameworthy acts”.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli accused the state government of refusing to be upfront.
FULL REPORT
COVID CHAOS
It was reported in March 2023 that the Queensland government had written off a staggering $195 million spent on unused and expiring rapid Covid-19 tests.
A report from the Queensland Audit Office also revealed Queensland Health forked out $18 million for workers to stay on leave after refusing to be vaccinated while the state’s health department’s total costs related to the pandemic reached nearly $1.4 billion.
The department splashed the extraordinary sum on testing kits as demand surged amid the Omicron outbreak in early 2022.
During the pandemic, the department’s expenses for medical supplies more than doubled from $220.6 million to $426.4 million “to mitigate the risks of global supply shortages”, and increased the amount it expected to lose from “obsolete inventory” to $267.3 million.
When quizzed about the eye-watering expense for rapid tests that were sitting idle, Ms D’Ath shifted blame to the Morrison government’s health response which she said “failed Queensland and failed Australians”.
FULL REPORT
RAMPING TROUBLES
More than half of all critically ill Queenslanders trying to get into some of the state’s hospitals were being forced to wait in ambulances for longer than recommended, data revealed in October 2022.
And ambulance ramping deteriorated to such a point a staggering three of every four people trying to get into Redland Hospital in July were left waiting in an ambulance for more than 30 minutes.
Ramping has been an ongoing problem.
Health sector experts said the ongoing ramping issue was a “symptom” of a system in distress, which would be aided by communities being able to access the right care at the right time rather than have to escalate it to an emergency setting.
The opposition believed the 73 per cent ramping rate at Redland Hospital was the highest ever recorded.
The data came after it was revealed that one in five Queensland hospitals cut their bed numbers in the eight months to May 2022, with some health facilities losing more than 15 beds.
FULL REPORT
MAYHEM IN MACKAY
A toxic workplace culture and “systematic” failures throughout Mackay Base Hospital led to botched surgeries and inadequate care that left three babies dead and dozens of women physically and mentally scarred for life, an investigation revealed in October 2022.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath was close to tears when describing the revelations as “damning” and said she was “deeply sorry” for the harm caused to the women and their families.
“No family should ever have to experience the devastation of the loss of a child and certainly not under these circumstances,” she said.
Not everything was running smoothly in Mackay.
“Our health system can and must do better.”
The opposition, which had agitated for the investigation, described the situation as a “catastrophic failure” of Queensland Health that should never have occurred.
Investigators were tasked with looking at the hospital’s operations between July 2019 and October 2021, but found serious issues spanning back at least a decade.
The report made 122 recommendations – 47 of which have been implemented, while the rest have been accepted “in full or in principle” by the government for implementation “as a matter of urgency” within 12 months.
FULL REPORT
COST BLOWOUTS
A multimillion-dollar election promise to build or upgrade ambulance stations in some of Queensland’s fastest growing areas had been marred by budget and timeline blowouts, documents revealed in December 2022.
It meant a plan once pitched to cost $31m may now came in at more than $53m, with none of the six stations delivered until early to mid-2024 – months before Queenslanders head back to the polls.
Rockhampton Hospital had cost blowouts.
And Queensland Ambulance briefing documents, obtained by the opposition through right to information, show these issues come as patients and paramedics are increasingly spending longer on hospital ramps.
The Palaszczuk government, in its 2020 re-election bid, promised to build or refurbish six ambulance stations in Townsville, Rockhampton, Lawnton, Ripley, Caloundra and Morayfield to “increase access to emergency health care” and provide paramedics with “world-class amenities”.
QAS performance updates dating from June to September revealed the cost of the projects had increased or nearly doubled.
FULL REPORT
DNA LAB DEBACLE
More than 1800 false witness statements in at least 1260 court cases were made by the troubled Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services on whether DNA had been detected.
The damning figure was revealed by Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in December 2022, two-and-a-half months after an interim report from the commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing urged every misleading witness statement to be immediately tracked down.
In September Commissioner Walter Sofronoff KC revealed the first public hearings had uncovered a major flaw in how DNA samples were being tested by the FSS over a number of years.
There have been DNA issues reported at Qld Health.
A change in procedure in 2018 meant samples within a certain level of DNA were passed over for testing, and led to samples below that range being reported as having “insufficient DNA for analysis” or “words to similar effect”.
“In fact, the possibility of obtaining a profile from these samples cannot be excluded because, although it might be that the samples contained insufficient DNA to develop a DNA profile, it might also be that the samples contained (DNA),” he said.
Samples with even lower levels were reported as having “no DNA detected”.
Weeks later a commission of inquiry found catastrophic failings at the state-run DNA lab occurred under the leadership of lab boss Cathie Allen who lied to police, executives and staff.
FULL REPORT
‘TOXIC CULTURE’
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in December 2022 declared her department had “cultural issues” and conceded some Queensland Health staff were scared to speak up.
In a frank admission, Ms D’Ath said the culture at Queensland Health – which is the state government’s biggest department with about 100,000 full time-equivalent employees – needed to change.
Culture has been an issue. Picture: Mary-Ann Shapcott
“It is very concerning that not only are staff not willing to speak up, but staff are scared to speak up in some areas of Queensland Health,” Ms D’Ath said at the time.
“We’ve already started work to start addressing these issues. It’s a conversation I’ve had with all board chairs and chief executives and Queensland Health more broadly that this culture has to change.
“And there has to be mechanisms where if middle or senior leadership are not being listened to or are sweeping issues under the carpet, that they can be escalated.”
FULL REPORT
WHAT HAS BEEN THE REACTION TO YVETTE D’ATH’S LATEST ROLE?
Revelations that Ms D’Ath would soon return to her previous role as attorney-general was met by mixed reactions from couriermail.com.au readers.
Wayne: “Health Minister as Attorney General?? Another disaster forthcoming.”
Yvette D’Ath at Parliament. Picture: Annette Dew
Kathleen: “Deck chairs, titanic and an iceberg. What could possibly go wrong?”
Christopher: “Why was D’Ath not demoted and her papers marked “never to be given any position of responsibility again”?”
Sue: “Why isn’t the health minister going to the back bench. AP is just promoting her to the top lawmaker in Qld as the Qld AG. What the!”
Henry Root: “daths union clout wins out again! no sacking, just a transfer.”
Rod: “D’Ath’s disaster has led to D’Ath’s demotion. Too bad it wasn’t D’Ath’s departure.”
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Loading embed…
Loading embed…