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- 25 May 2005
Child Death Review Team Data
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Page: 16108
The Hon. CATHERINE CUSACK [5.53 p.m.]: On 16 November 2004 I spoke in this House in relation to the 2003 annual report on child deaths. I thanked the Child Death Review Team for its important work and commented on the low death rate in the Richmond-Tweed area. Indeed, the Tweed statistical division had no infant deaths recorded at all during the three-year trend period—the only part of our State to have such a positive result. On 15 December, however, I emailed Gillian Calvert, the Children's Commissioner, who convenes that important committee, to express concern about the positive nature of those figures. I wrote:
As you can imagine I was very pleased our region has such a low child death rate. However, it was so positive particularly in relation to Tweed that it worried me. It seems unrealistically low given what I know from the local media.
More recently it has occurred to me that we have no access to NSW teaching Hospitals and seriously injured or ill residents are all transferred to Brisbane tertiary level hospitals. If your report does not include NSW child deaths where the young person has passed away either en route or in a Queensland hospital, then a very substantial number of child deaths for our region, including a large number of road accident fatalities are not being recorded.
I have re-checked the methodology and it is clear that you only review deaths occurring in NSW and only consult NSW authorities.
Can you advise me on this matter as these statistics are very significant and impact on our understanding of need, and planning for services in our area. I assure [you] I would have given a very different adjournment speech had I been aware such deaths are not being counted (note that there are no qualifications in the report particularly in relation to the Tweed infant death statistics).
On 24 December Ms Calvert replied:
As indicated in the Teams Annual report (page 4), our principal source of data is Death Registration data for the state of New South Wales obtained from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. We receive information on all child deaths registered. The Child Death Register, maintained by the Child Death Review Team, only includes deaths which are both registered and occur in NSW. Deaths of children who die outside of NSW are not included.
She continued:
The Child Death Review Team in NSW is not able to access death registration data for deaths registered in other states, such as Queensland, nor access information from authorities outside NSW, even if the children were residents of NSW.
Ms Calvert's email suggested there would be a review of the text of the report with a view to clarifying this matter in the footnotes of the document. I was concerned, however, because I believe the issues are more substantial than simply clarifying the accuracy of the statements in the report.
The reasons for my concern are: research and data on infant and child mortality rates is the bases of resource allocation—especially health but also community services and programs for Aboriginal children, a substantial number of whom live in our region; the issue of recorded deaths from traffic accidents can give a false portrayal of mortality on roads such as the Pacific Highway in our region; and notification to the Ombudsman of deaths of children previously subject to Department of Community Services [DOCS] notifications. In other words, if a child has been notified to DOCS as being at risk and subsequently dies, the death is specially investigated by the Ombudsman. But it would appear that unless the death occurs in, or is pronounced a death in, New South Wales it may slip through the net and not be investigated.
I subsequently met Ms Calvert and put my concerns to her. I also pointed out that the problem for our region is a cross-border issue that would also apply in relation to child deaths in Broken Hill, Albury-Wodonga and possibly Monaro-South Coast and regions surrounding the Australian Capital Territory. I have subsequently received correspondence indicating that the team has done some further work which suggests that up to 40 per cent of child deaths in the Richmond-Tweed statistical area may be registered in Queensland but not recorded in New South Wales. That appears to be a figure that applies principally to local children. It appears that it is very rare for a New South Wales child who is not from our region to pass away in Queensland.
I believe we are talking about dozens of infants and child deaths over a sample period of approximately three years. I thank the Child Death Review Team for taking this issue seriously. I point out that it affects all cross-border regions in the State. It is my hope that the matter can be resolved so that these deaths are captured and properly recorded and reported upon. As an interim solution, I would suggest that the data should not be published at all. It is better to have no data than data that puts forward a false portrayal of a positive outcome in a region. I will continue to pursue this matter. I appreciate the support of the Child Death Review Team investigating this matter.
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