SA Health may have "miscalculated" the due dates of more than 1,700 pregnant women, prompting concerns some could have been induced too early.The investigation will likely take "a couple of months", with the findings to be made public.
SA Health is halfway through conducting its own review of medical records to determine whether any women or babies have experienced adverse health outcomes. "Of those women who remain pregnant, we've covered all of those women, and they will all be having their records rectified." According to the internal SA Health document, when maternity admission notes were opened in Sunrise, the field containing the estimated due date was "potentially overwritten" by the last menstrual period calculation, causing the field to display "incorrect data".
"If you have an elective caesarean section at 38 weeks , for example, instead of 39, you may find that the baby has more difficulty breathing. "You can be reassured that if your record was impacted by this, we've been through those records and the error has been rectified," she said.Mr Picton said he had asked SA's Commissioner for Excellence and Innovation in Health, Keith McNeil, to investigate "what happened, how it happened and the follow-up action that occurred".