WEST Moreton Health along with the State Government have reacted quickly to complaints from a young Fernvale woman about her treatment in the Ipswich Emergency Department after she’d suffered a miscarriage.
Nikkole Southwell, who was 12 weeks pregnant when she lost her child in April, reported that paramedics placed the fetus into a biohazard bag on the way to Ipswich Hospital.
Then she said after arriving at the Ipswich ED she was forced to sit in the waiting room for hours holding the bag with sheets around her waist.
In media reports last week, she was quoted as saying she was later treated on a hospital bed smeared with another patient’s blood.
She went on to allege: “Hospital staff used her partner’s phone torch rather than the appropriate medical equipment during an examination before she was discharged.
I lost my baby, and my dignity was taken, I felt like my baby meant nothing while it sat in the top of my handbag in a biohazard bag for all to see.
With the alleged incident making state wide headlines on TV as well as in print the new Health Minister, Shannon Fentiman, stepped forward to ensure a comprehensive review was underway.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and I want to extend my deepest sympathies to Ms Southwell and her family,” Fentiman said.
“I look forward to receiving all recommendations from the review which is being undertaken by Ipswich Hospital.”
“I want to ensure that women right across Queensland have access to appropriate and compassionate care,” she said.
West Moreton Health chief executive Hannah Bloch said compassionate care was something they strived to achieve and to hear on this occasion that this was not Ms Southwell’s experience was very upsetting for all staff.
In a further development to the review Queensland Health is now urgently working together with frontline staff to put together practice guidelines and models of care for women who miscarry.
It’s believed these new guidelines will be implemented as a matter of urgency.
