Martin Daly raises alarm over $4.3bn medical litigation bill

I'd like to focus in on one area because I have real concerns around it. It's an area that sort of goes, it's sort of silent, and it's a silent increase in cost to the health service, and that's the state's claims agency and medical indemnity and medical litigation. Now, I know that it has peaked off in terms of what you've applied for in the supplementary budget, but I'd really like to ask you about the progress of the implementation of Professor Ron O'Mahony's report from September 2024. I mean, there's a huge cost here. Our overall liability end of 2024 is $4.3 billion. It's a huge amount of money, and that's notwithstanding the validity of claims or of the medical professions who are defending those claims. It's a source of huge stress not just for the people who are bringing those claims because of the length of time. We're one of the longest countries in the world, 1,462 days, to bring a claim to court or to be settled, 50% higher than the UK, Hong Kong or Singapore, 26% more expensive than Singapore or 56% more than Malaysia, but 191% more expensive than our closest neighbour, the UK. Now, that is simply inexplicable. And I do think it's an area of huge cost to our health service, and I'm just wondering what are the department doing in terms of the implementation? Okay, so I think it's important that I declare an interest in this to the chair. I have a child who had a neonatal brain injury and who goes through the state claims process, so I am not just the Minister for Health but a parent in precisely that situation, and it's very important that I disclose that, although it is quite private, but it's important that it be understood. And so I do have personal understanding of this particular process and the interim steps and the way in which it is managed. I recognise the work of Professor Rona Mahoney. I have taken the time to try to meet some of the women who were behind the UCC research that was done in relation to that, to better understand their experience of the medical litigation scene. Can I say, first of all, that none of those people want to be in the system? There's not a single parent who is in that system that wants to be there. Every one of them would have rather enjoyed not having had that experience. And in every single case, they would like to avoid that for anybody else. So in relation to the report, I recognise that report, but I also recognise that it was chaired by somebody who was the Master of Maternity Hospital, where I repeatedly see events being presented in the court, including my own event presented in the court, and I have questions, and I had questions at the time, and I, you know, so I don't believe that that report is the panacea, necessarily. I have questions in relation to the accountability within hospitals. I recognise that many of those maternity hospitals are voluntary hospitals and that there is a board structure, and that accountability, and I mean real accountability, is considered in a different way. The real issue here is not about the implementation of a different issue. There's measures in the programme for government about a dedicated medical negligence course. We, in essence, already have that, because we have dedicated lists to this. We, in essence, already have mediation, but it's mediation that is essentially litigation by a different name. What we don't have is a culture yet, a real acknowledgement of wrongdoing, of anticipating the mental health implications of that, of anticipating the care implications of that, of supporting mothers and supporting babies who will have difficulty, and we just don't understand the nature of that difficulty yet. So, the programme for government goes beyond the implementation of this. Can I say that, as Minister, I have tried to begin a body of work in relation to this, but there is also so much else to do. There's also so much else that's urgent. What I really want to see from the maternity hospitals as leaders in this field is a very different attitude to openness, accountability, investigation and responsiveness and proactivity around wrapping their arms around women and babies who have had very adverse outcomes. You will be aware, of course, that this is particularly why it's so important that where I see patterns that are resulting in really adverse outcomes in Port Junkia or any other maternity system, that, of course, we have to take the interventions to protect women and babies. Thanks, Minister.