Monday 12th October 2009
TEBBUTT MUST ACT TO ENSURE DRUGS ARE SAFE AND
AT RISK PATIENTS IMMEDIATELY NOTIFIED
Shadow Health Minister Jillian Skinner has condemned the NSW Labor Government for failing to notify patients at serious risk because they have been administered potentially contaminated drugs.
Her comment relates to the allegation that ‘a large number of Ambulance Service of NSW Schedule 8 medications may have been subject to tampering and substituted with another fluid’.
The claim is made in a submission to the Health Care Complaints Commission, by the Emergency Medical Service Protection Association (EMSPA) formed recently by paramedics. They state that the tampering has been reported to the Ambulance Service and has been occurring over many months.
Mrs Skinner said the Ambulance Service had finally alerted police to serious safety breaches with allegations of drug use.
“It is disgraceful that the government has been slow to react to these serious allegations of tampering with vials of powerful and addictive painkillers – including the drug fentanyl,” Mrs Skinner said.
“It is scandalous that patients could potentially have been harmed and the government has not alerted them.
“Everyone will be conscious of the directions on medication packaging that the contents should not be used if the seal is broken.
“Yet here we have a drug administered by ambulance officers in good faith to ease the pain of their patients coming from vials with broken seals and potentially contaminated contents.
“Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt must immediately act to ensure that all effected patients are notified and tested if necessary. She should also conduct an audit to ensure no other medications are effected.
“Lives have been put at risk and the Rees Labor Government must confirm how long it has known about the drug-related safety failings and why it has failed to act. The breaches have caused undue stress to dedicated ambulance officers who have been placed in an impossible situation,’’ Mrs Skinner said