The Queensland coroner will launch an investigation into three tragic deaths in Doomadgee, the subject of ABC's Four Corners episode on Monday,
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The program said young women were dying in Doomadgee and did not get the health care they needed.
The cause of death was rheumatic heart disease, a disease eliminated elsewhere in Australia decades ago with the rate growing and is now higher than in sub-Saharan Africa in Doomadgee.
The first known death was back in 2009 when four-year-old Naylor Waldron died after being sent home from Doomadgee hospital. There were community protests and recommendations of changes which were not acted on.
There were at least three suspicious deaths in the town around 2019.
One woman, 19-year-old Betty Booth, was sent home with Panadol before she died.
The Queensland Health inquiry into Ms Booth's death blamed "clinical risk and poor clinical governance", an unwelcoming hospital environment and a limited understanding of the disease and its treatment.
It also said there was "acceptance, passivity and low expectations of health outcomes" in Aboriginal communities like Doomadgee.
The Queensland coroner has now announced an inquest into the three deaths.
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The ABC published a statement from Queensland health minister Yvette D'Ath which said the women's death was tragic and they had "been let down".
Pat Turner, who heads the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation said it was inexcusable for a patient to be repeatedly turned away like Betty was.
"If I present to an emergency department and I've got serious symptoms, I don't want to be handed Panadol through the grate," Ms Turner said.
Waanyi Native Title Corporation chair Alex Doomadgee said he was tired of burying his people.
Local state member Robbie Katter said the state government had a lot to answer for the state of remote health which he said was underfunded.
Emails obtained by Four Corners under Queensland's Right to Information legislation showed the North West Hospital and Health Service board repeatedly questioned Queensland's Health's insistence on budget savings.
Ms D'Ath sacked the board in 2021 citing concerns about financial management.
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