Arabic version: تحقيق هيلكريست يستمع إلى تغييرات في بروتوكولات المستشفيات

According to ABC News, the aftermath of the 2021 Hillcrest Primary School jumping castle tragedy prompted changes to patient-identification protocols in Tasmania’s north-west. A coronial inquest heard that six children died and three classmates were seriously injured after a freak wind tossed a jumping castle across the school oval during end-of-year celebrations in Devonport.

Tasmanian Health Service executive Paula Hyland told Coroner Olivia McTaggart that the emergency response at Mersey Community Hospital triggered a code brown, the nationally recognised code for a mass casualty event. The last code brown declared in the state’s north-west had been in 2001, following a bus crash at Cradle Mountain that killed four people and critically injured six others.

The first of the six children arrived at the hospital at about 10.45am on the day of the tragedy. The court heard that two children were pronounced dead on arrival, while resuscitation efforts involving other children continued for several hours. Ms Hyland said children arriving at the hospital were unidentified because the immediate focus was lifesaving treatment, rather than identification. She said this did not affect their care but made it difficult to provide information to families.

The inquest heard that a Hillcrest teacher later came to the hospital to assist police and staff with identification. Ms Hyland said a protocol developed since the tragedy allows information to be included in a patient’s digital health record in real time, including their location within the hospital. The protocol has not been used in another comparable mass casualty event in the region.

State forensic pathologist Andrew Reid also gave evidence about post-mortem examinations. Asked whether other medical or surgical interventions could have changed the outcome for the six children, he said he did not believe they would have. The inquest is scheduled to continue for four days this week before further hearing blocks in November and February.