Tasmania’s Health system is in the spotlight again – this time it’s services for amputees which are being criticised.
State Labor Leader Rebecca White has told Parliament about how the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie threw out an East Coast man’s leg while he was in Hobart for surgery.
A Circular Head man also trialed a new ankle and knee joint in December, but when the trial failed and he went to get his previous joints re-fitted, they too had been thrown out.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has issued an apology, telling Parliament it’s totally unacceptable and a review is being conducted to ensure such a circumstances never happens again.
Co-founder of the North-West Amputee Support Group, which has more than 50 members from Smithton through to Exeter, Trevor Gouge, says the Premier’s apology is not good enough and more needs to be done to support amputees on the North-West Coast.
Mr Gouge finds it hard to believe how someone can lose a prosthetic limb.
He says more needs to be done for amputees on the North-West Coast, with some members of his group waiting more than six months for an appointment with a prosthetist, resulting in a number of on-going issues.
