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- 16 November 2004
Child Death Review Team Annual Report
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Page: 12859
The Hon. CATHERINE CUSACK [10.18 p.m.]: Last week the New South Wales Child Death Review Team released its annual report, which examines the deaths of children and young people aged 0 to 17 years for the period January to December 2003. The Child Death Review Team is a 16-member expert panel that includes government representatives but nevertheless meets and makes recommendations independent of government. The team is notified by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages of all child deaths in New South Wales. It maintains a child death register, analyses data regarding causes of death, identifies patterns and trends, and makes recommendations to prevent future deaths. The death of any young person is incredibly tragic, with repercussions that are life changing for their parents, families, friends, teachers and, in many cases, the professionals who nursed or otherwise cared for them. For those who died in accidents or as a result of violence there are volunteers, police and emergency workers, all of whom are profoundly affected as the death of a very young person is something impossible to come to terms with. I know I speak for all members when I extend my sympathy to and concern for those affected by the loss of a child.
The work of the New South Wales Child Death Review Team is invaluable, and I acknowledge convenor Gillian Calvert and deputy convenor Professor Caroline Finch. I particularly acknowledge the longer serving members of the team because I believe that the work and reporting on this issue has evolved in a very constructive and useful way, and I imagine that their ongoing involvement has been instrumental to this achievement. Those longer serving members include Dr Ian Cameron of the Rural Doctors Network, Associate Professor Judith Irwin of the University of Sydney, and Dr Elisabeth Murphy of the New South Wales Health Department, who is the longest serving member of the committee, having been appointed in December 1996.
Between January and December 2003 there was a total of 566 child deaths. Of these, 56.9 per cent, or 322 deaths, were males and 43.1 per cent, or 244 deaths, were females. This is the lowest number of deaths since 1996 and shows that the rate of deaths for children has fallen. Overall, the death rate due to diseases and morbid conditions has fallen, as has the death rate due to external causes. Of course, this is welcome news.
There are very distinct patterns according to age. The infant mortality rate, that is the rate of deaths for babies under the age of 12 months, has fallen to 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. This is very significant because infant deaths account for just over half of all child deaths. In 2003 there were 292 infant deaths, 150 of which related to prebirth factors and abnormalities. For toddlers aged from 1 to 4 years, 15 toddlers died in transport incidents—including car accidents—which were the highest cause of death; 13 died from respiratory diseases; and 8 died from accidental drowning or submersion. I note from the report that there was not one drowning in a dam or on a rural property, and that is quite an achievement.
In the age group 5 to 9 years medical conditions were the second major cause of death. Drowning was the third-highest cause, with 5 such deaths, and transport incidents resulted in 4 deaths. For the age group 10 to 14 years transport incidents claimed 12 lives. The next two major causes were neoplasms and respiratory diseases, and the fourth major cause, with 4 deaths, was self-harm. I noted when reading the report that one child aged 10 had committed suicide in 2003. That is most distressing in one so young. Among children aged 15 to 17 years, 20 lives were lost to transport incidents, 13 to intentional self-harm, 11 to neoplasms and 6 to assault.
There is a great deal of information in the report. However, I wish to draw attention to a couple of issues of particular interest to me as a country member of Parliament. The report provides unequivocal evidence that the more rural and remote a community the higher the death rate. Indeed, in remote communities the child death rate is three times higher than in accessible communities. The Richmond-Tweed area has the lowest infant mortality rate. In the Tweed, where about 467 babies are born each year, no infant deaths were recorded for the three-year period from 2000 to 2003. This contrasts with 20 infant deaths in the Nowra-Bomaderry area, where about 392 babies are born each year—slightly fewer than the Tweed. However, 11 of those babies died over the three-year period. We need to be cautious with these figures, as I have discussed with my friend and colleague the honourable member for South Coast, but they certainly warrant further investigation.
Across all age groups there were 40 child deaths in the Richmond-Tweed area over the three-year period, and, thankfully, that is a low rate. Tweed Heads, Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie have very low rates of child deaths, and it seems to me that this supports the review team's observation that the more accessible the services the lower the death rate. There is a real equity issue in relation to the distribution of health and community services across the State, particularly to regional and rural areas. The evidence provided by the Child Death Review Team could not be more stark. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprise 3.5 per cent of our population but 9 per cent of child deaths. That is much too high.
I take special interest in the relatively high number of male deaths. There is no physiological reason for this, and clearly a major factor is the risk-taking behaviour exhibited by boys. One aspect of the report that did disappoint me was the failure of the State Government to finalise suicide prevention strategies. I commend this report as essential reading, and thank the Child Death Review Team for its very professional and important work.
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