A number of Canberra Hospital staff have missed multiple deadlines to provide statements to an inquest into the death of a child, frustrating counsel assisting the coroner.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"We have a family that wishes to know what happened," counsel assisting, Michael Fordham SC, told a preliminary hearing of the Rozalia Spadafora inquest late last week.
Rozalia, 5, died at the hospital on July 5, 2022, after suffering from the viral infection myocarditis.
She was taken there the previous evening, on her birthday, but had to wait in the emergency department for hours before she was seen.
The five-year-old had a number of tests after she was admitted and was moved multiple times within the hospital.
A decision was ultimately made to transport Rozalia to Sydney, but she suffered a cardiac arrest and died before this could happen.
The inquest hearing is scheduled to take place in October and December.
Last Friday, during a preliminary hearing, Mr Fordham told the ACT Coroner's Court of what he described as "a difficulty in the preparation of the matter".
Mr Fordham told coroner Ken Archer there were 10 outstanding statements, which had been due in May.
The deadline was later extended until June 2, but they still had not been provided.
Mr Fordham said a number of the "missing" statements were supposed to come from within the hospital's paediatric and general emergency departments.
There was also one from the intensive care unit, and two from pathology.
"The emergency department and paediatric emergency statements are particularly important because they are the earliest in the chronology," Mr Fordham told Mr Archer.
"What is happening is that our ability to properly brief experts and to arrive at an issues list is being impaired ... and it is in the interests of the hospital, as well as the assisting team and your honour, to get that expert material early ... so we all know what we're dealing with."
Counsel for the ACT government said two of the outstanding statements would be provided to the court later that day.
MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS:
"The majority of the balance of the statements are with the witnesses for final review and signature, and we will continue to contact them and impress upon them the urgency with which we require them to be returned," she said.
Mr Archer ultimately ordered that the outstanding statements be provided no later than Friday next week.
He also directed that a transcript of last week's preliminary hearing be urgently sent to the government's barrister, with the expectation she would forward it to anyone who could speed up the missing statements.
The case is due back in court on June 28.
