Qld disability deaths avoidable: review

Queenslanders living in disability care with known swallowing difficulties choked to death because they were simply given the wrong meals, a review has found.

One was fed a burger and chips, another was given a piece of cake and a third ate a sausage when they were supposed to be served soft moist food cut into small pieces.

Their deaths were among the 73 that occurred at supported disability accommodation and accredited residential services in Queensland between 2009 and 2014.

A review has determined 53 per cent of those deaths were potentially avoidable.

Public Advocate Jodie Griffiths-Cook led the review, which also said 47 per cent of those who died were aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

"There were several cases of people with known swallowing difficulties choking to death simply because they were served the wrong meals," Ms Griffiths-Cook said.

"These deaths should never have happened and the remedy is relatively inexpensive enhanced awareness through better information and training."

The review, the first of its kind in Queensland, also found other people died from serious diseases that should have been identified and treated earlier, but symptoms were either missed or misdiagnosed.

One woman who had health issues for years was thought to have asthma, but when she was finally taken to hospital doctors found multiple cancers throughout her chest and she died two days later.

Ms Griffiths-Cook said greater priority needed to be given to primary health care for people with a disability, including check-ups and regular medical reviews.

Health care was not only inadequate but seemed over reliant on medication, she said.

She also warned the situation could worsen under the National Disability Insurance Scheme unless something was done to improve care, standards and official reporting.

The review, tabled in Queensland parliament on Wednesday, has recommended the state coroner report annually on deaths in care with systemic reviews by an appropriate agency every two years.