undaberg hospital scare unacceptable, Minister says

The Minister says an investigation is underway and staff could be disciplined. (ABC News: Emma Pollard)

The State Government and Queensland Health are at odds over an infection scare at the Bundaberg hospital.

Queensland Health says 235 patients at the Bundaberg Hospital Dental Clinic were recently treated with instruments that had been cleaned, but not fully sterilised.

The instruments had been used the week before on 33 people, with 31 of those patients now being tested to assess whether they are a health risk to the others.

Chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young says there is a minimal risk of exposure to HIV or hepatitis.

"The risk to those people is very, very low - it's not zero but it's very low," she said.

But Health Minister Paul Lucas says it is unacceptable.

"I don't care that people said it's relatively low risk - the fact is it shouldn't have been used," he said.

He says an investigation is underway and staff could be disciplined.

Mr Lucas says the public should have been told sooner about the infection scare for dental patients.

He says he only found out about the incident yesterday, but hospital staff contacted the affected patients on Friday.

"They did the right thing - let's be clear about this - Queensland Health identified the issue themselves and started the process of writing to people and making contact," he said.

"It's not as if for example it was discovered by the media and then it became an issue.

"But frankly this is something that should have been advised to the director-general and the Minister immediately."

'Another bungle'

However, Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek says it is another bungle from Queensland Health and shows there is still a lack of resources at the hospital.

Mr Langbroek says staff at the clinic are under pressure.

"If you've got an eight-year waiting list and amongst that you've got hundreds of patients every week who you need to see, at times it's obviously hard if there aren't enough people to make sure that all of those six procedures are followed," he said.

"That's exactly where resourcing is an issue."

But Mr Lucas says an investigation is underway rejects Mr Langbroek's claims about resourcing.

"How could it be a lack of resources not to look at a tag to see if something is sterilised or not," he said.

"They want to play politics - I want to sort it out.

"By all means the Opposition have every right to be critical in relation to this - I am as well."

Urgent review

Queensland Health says independent infection control experts will help with an urgent review of procedures in Bundaberg.

The chief executive officer for the Sunshine Coast-Wide Bay health district, Kevin Hegarty, says independent infection control experts will fly to the hospital today.

"If anything comes out of this review today that says we can do even better, we'll be putting that in place," he said.

"We can guarantee that we'll be doing everything possible to make sure it doesn't occur again and that's why the comprehensive response both from making sure the patients involved receive the contact and support required through to looking at process in the most extensive way possible."

Mr Hegarty says the review will cover human error and patient safety...

"We treat this very seriously and any action that is highlighted through this ... analysis, any required action to improve our process or whatever action they come up with, I'll be considering that tonight and putting that into place without any hesitation," he said.

Duty of care

Meanwhile, health law specialist Trudie Rogers says it appears that Queensland Health may have breached its duty of care by not sterilising instruments at Bundaberg Hospital.

"You expect that when you go into a hospital to be treated - not according to standards you might expect in a Third World country - but according to the standards you would expect in Australia," she said.

"These standards are there for a purpose - if those standards are breached that could be considered to be negligent, but certainly on the face of it it seems to be."