Two stood down over SA chemo bungle

Two South Australian health workers have been stood down for their involvement in the state's chemotherapy bungle, Premier Jay Weatherill has confirmed.

A hospital ward at Liverpool Hospital

Two SA health workers have been stood down over the state's chemotherapy dosing bungle. (AAP)

Two South Australian health workers have been stood down over the state's chemotherapy dosing bungle.

Premier Jay Weatherill said on Thursday he was glad to see the action had been taken after investigations by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

"We're pleased that they have finally completed their work," he said at the Adelaide Airport before flying to China on a three-day trade mission.

The bungle involved 10 leukaemia patients being underdosed at two Adelaide hospitals between June 2014 and January 2015.

AHPRA has confirmed its investigations into nine matters related to the blunder, which involved four medical practitioners and five pharmacists, have ended.

It said in a statement that eight of those matters had been deemed to require no further action and the ninth had resulted in a caution.

The authority's investigations into a further three matters are still under way, and it's understood these are the issues over which SA Health has stood down the two workers pending the outcome of a departmental disciplinary process.

"These have been comprehensive investigations and our priority has been to ensure that they are thorough and fair," AHPRA said on Thursday.

Opposition Leader Stephen Wade said AHPRA had taken an "unacceptable" time to complete only part of its investigations.

He has called on the government to release a full report on what the authority has discovered so far.

"The release of the AHPRA report would provide a better understanding of how SA's health system comprehensively failed so many patients at the moment they needed it most," he said in a statement.

Earlier this year a coronial inquest into the bungle was expanded after the death of a fourth patient who was underdosed.

The SA coroner is investigating the deaths of Christopher McRae, 67, Johanna Pinxteren, 76, Bronte Higham, 67, and Carol Bairnsfather, 70.


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Source: AAP


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Two stood down over SA chemo bungle | SBS News