Sandipan Dhar: Family releases GP referral asking for a blood test, reveals AHPRA complaints underway

Sandipan Dhar arrived at Joondalup Health Campus with a GP referral that explicitly stated he had a long-running fever and “would need bloods” – raising further questions about why hospital staff failed to order the simple diagnostic test. The Dhar family on Wednesday revealed they had begun the process of referring individual clinicians involved in Sandipan’s care to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, which is the national medical watchdog. That includes GPs at Key Largo Medical Centre, where Sandipan presented three times in the fortnight before his death, as well as doctors and nurses who examined their son on his first visit to JHC on March 22. The 21-month-old boy died of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia two days after that initial hospital visit in a harrowing and preventable tragedy that has forced Ramsay Health Care, which operates JHC, to announce an external investigation. Key Largo Medical Centre refused to comment since Sandipan’s death. The boy’s grieving parents, Sanjoy and Saraswati Dhar, say they have not been contacted by the clinic either. In addition to the AHPRA referrals, Mr Dhar revealed JHC had now provided him with a copy of the GP referral the family presented to staff when arriving on March 22. That referral – from a doctor at Key Largo Medical Centre – was provided earlier the same day and only after Sandipan’s parents had repeatedly asked GPs at the practice to order a blood test. The document describes Sandipan’s medical history to that point, including a fever that has “last 3 weeks” and that the infant was “irritable and miserable” when examined and had a “wet sounding” cough. The GP had two days earlier – on March 20 – diagnosed Sandipan with tonsilitis and prescribed antibiotics. The referral states: “He would need bloods” as well as a urine test. Mr Dhar said the referral was further vindication of his family’s version of events, which was that they asked doctors and nurses at JHC to test Sandipan’s blood “a minimum three times” during their March 22 visit. When first responding to the case publicly earlier this month, Ramsay Health Care state manager Shane Kelly said staff at the hospital interviewed in the wake of the death claimed there had been no parental request for a blood test. “(The referral) justifies that we never said any lie,” Mr Dhar said. “(The hospital) knew it from the very beginning. Even for the sake of argument if me and (my wife) didn’t ask for a blood test, we had that referral with us. “It clearly asks for a blood test and we handed it over to them.” Mr Dhar said he had no trust in any investigation carried out by Ramsay but was hopeful that the external probe – and the WA Government – would be more thorough. The family also remains hopeful the Coroner’s Court – which is conducting its own investigation – will opt for an inquest, which could involve compelling doctors and nurses involved in Sandipan’s care to testify publicly. In the interim, Mr Dhar said he was “preparing to lodge complaints against individual professionals” at both JHC and Key Largo Medical Centre to AHPRA. “My family really considers that these people are responsible for the death of Sandipan so they should be prosecuted as per the law of this land. “They should not be free like they are. “We didn’t hear anything from the Key Largo Medical Centre, we don’t know (if) they have even done an internal investigation or not. “(JHC) made it very clear that their investigation (will not involve) taking any steps against their (doctors and nurses). So definitely we have to go through with AHPRA.”