Wrong baby cremated after 'mix up' at Sydney hospital
Leader of New South Wales' opposition party calls for health minister to be sacked
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Your support makes all the difference.A dead baby was mistakenly cremated after a hospital in Sydney confused it with different child.
The two babies were said to have been mixed up because a blanket obscured one of their ID tags.
The incident follows a number of mistakes at the Royal North Shore Hospital, and there have been calls for New South Wales (NSW) health minister Jillian Skinner to resign.
The incident occurred late last year after one baby was miscarried after 20 weeks' gestation and another was stillborn.
The identities of the two babies became mixed up at the mortuary after staff failed to read the correct name tag.
Although the family of one of the children requested a burial, both the babies’ bodies were cremated.
"A full investigation was undertaken and the families were fully informed of its outcome," the Royal North Shore Hospital said in a statement.
"A number of measures have since been put in place to avoid a similar mistake being repeated in the future."
In response, Luke Foley, leader of the ppposition party in NSW’s Parliament, called for Mike Baird, the state's Premier, to sack Ms Skinner.
“Mr Baird’s signalled he wants to refresh his cabinet with new ideas, new energy, new talent," he said.
“Why wait for the summer? Do it now.”
Speaking about the baby mix-up, Ms Skinner said: “I’m devastated for [the families], and I’m really sorry such an event occurred.”
She admitted she hadn’t been aware of the incident, but "if it was brought to my attention, I would seek advice from the ministry about what happened in that particular case, whether it was isolated, and what measures have been taken to address it.”
The mistake was the latest in a number of medical mishaps that have emerged this week.
At the same hospital earlier this year, a woman who requested permission to take a final photo of her deceased mother discovered her body had been incorrectly labelled by mortuary staff.
Chief Health Minister Dr Kerry Chant said the mistake was a “near miss of a catastrophic outcome” that could have been worse if the body had been buried.
In another case, a man who died in a hospital toilet was left undiscovered for 21 hours.
These revelations follow a report which detailed how more than 130 cancer patients received the wrong chemotherapy doses at hospitals in New South Wales.
Northern Sydney Local Health District has apologised, adding: “A number of measures have since been put in place to avoid a similar mistake being repeated in the future.”
The health department also offered grief counselling to the affected families.
NSW hospitals are introducing a new electronic medical records system, which they hope will improve accuracy and prevent further errors.
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