Satisfaction survey sent to dead girl

Bonnie Walsh

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The family of a Christchurch girl was sent a patient satisfaction survey by the Canterbury District Health Board a week after the seven-year-old died.

Bonnie Walsh died on January 18 after battling cancer for nearly three years.

Her mother, Sandra, was sent an outpatient satisfaction survey on January 26.

The first page of the survey stated that Bonnie last visited Christchurch Hospital on January 19 a day after she died at her home.

Sandra Walsh completed the survey and posted it back to the health board yesterday.

On the first page she wrote: "Bonnie is unable to complete this survey because she has died. Please check your record."

In response to the first question of the survey, "How well did your appointment time suit you?", Walsh ticked the box marked very poor and wrote: "Patient died before appointment time."

To the question "Please rate our staff on telling you how long you would wait when you arrived?", Walsh marked very poor and stated it "felt like a lifetime".

To the question "Which ethnic group do you belong to?", Walsh replied, "Other" and added "Dead Canadian".

When asked for contact details, Walsh wrote: "Bonnie Walsh, Memorial Park Cemetery."

Yesterday Bonnie's parents, who moved from Canada to Christchurch six years ago, praised the medical team that looked after their daughter, reserving their criticism for the board's administration.

"We've been intimately involved with the people at the cancer ward for the best part of three years. We never felt they were giving anything else other than their best," said David Walsh, Bonnie's father.

"This was a communications mixup and it's just that a couple of times the left hand doesn't seem to talk to the right."

Sandra Walsh said the medical team "have been beautiful".

"Dave and I would like to emphasise that each person we dealt with during Bonnie's illness has been a treasure," she said.

"They have worked above and beyond the call of duty, making our last year with her as easy as possible. Person to person, the medical service is fantastic. This survey, however, is indicative of the main problem we've had over the course of her treatment from 2006 to her death this year. No-one ever talks to each other."

The Canterbury District Health Board's corporate quality and risk manager, Jan Nicholson, yesterday apologised, saying the organisation "recognises and apologises for the distress that receiving this survey would have caused Bonnie's family".

"Although every effort is made to ensure that this survey is not sent inappropriately unfortunately on this occasion our system has let Bonnie's family down.

"We would like to assure Bonnie's family that we will make every endeavour through reviewing our processes that this unfortunate occurrence does not happen to anyone else."

- © Fairfax NZ News