00:01Between January 2022 and July 2025, 576 patients of the Townsville University Hospital were
00:09effectively lost to the system. It was the result of multiple failures relating to the
00:13hospital's urology department. Today, Queensland's Health Minister delivered the over 300-page
00:19independent report. It found when issues in follow-up care were identified initially in
00:242022, further failures would have been avoided. The report found that the Health Service did
00:31not appear to appreciate the seriousness of patient safety risks until 2025. Of the 576
00:37patients lost to care, four were found to have experienced severe consequences, including
00:42one who died and another who is now in palliative care. The Health Minister said, however, that
00:4785% of the patients caught up in the bungle suffered very little or no impacts as a result
00:53of gaps in their care. So that is a nugget of good news for those people in that category.
01:01But the simple fact of the matter is that patients were lost to care. Patients missed the care
01:07that they should have received when they came to the hospital and when they received the
01:12service and that is unacceptable. The report also found that limited or no action was taken
01:16when concerns about a patient's safety were raised. The report made 27 recommendations, including
01:22two new full-time urologists and additional mechanisms for staff to raise concerns to the
01:27health department. Health Minister Tim Nichols said since the report had been started, there has been
01:32a significant restructure of the hospital board and executives. Additionally, an independent report
01:37into hospital culture was released, which found staff felt a fractured relationship with the board.
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