The widow of a man who died of a heart attack while on the Auckland District Health Board waiting list for treatment is unconvinced the board has changed enough to avoid similar occurrences.
Northlander Barry Searles, 76, slipped through the frailties of the paper-based transfer system that existed between the Northland and Auckland DHBs.
The Auckland board says these weaknesses have been rectified. But Eila Searles remains so dissatisfied with the DHB's response over her husband's death in 2009, 25 days after he was put on the semi-urgent waiting list, that she wrote to its chairman, Lester Levy, to complain of apparent "disarray and disengagement".
"If a senior cardiologist can't be bothered to obtain pivotal referral information then there is little likelihood of junior staff taking any responsibility," Mrs Searles wrote.
The cardiologist had received a faxed referral letter from Northland DHB. The letter understated the seriousness of Mr Searles' heart test results - he should have been admitted to Auckland Hospital immediately - but the faxed results print-out was too faint to read and the cardiologist did not seek a legible copy.
