Dr Sophie Davison, WA’s former deputy chief psychiatrist, will lead the review into the circumstances surrounding the discharge of a 30-year-old man from the RAH on December 18.

The man was then arrested on December 20th and charged with murder and attempted murder after two women were stabbed at a Plympton real estate business at around 3.30pm Wednesday.

Morphett Vale resident Julie Seed, 38, died at the scene.

A 50-year-old Henley Beach resident was also stabbed and taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious injuries.

Announcing Davison’s appointment on Thursday, Health Minister Chris Picton said the case was “of massive concern”.

He said Davison will examine the decisions leading up to the man’s discharge and the government was willing to make any necessary changes.

“Obviously the psychiatrists who make decisions about the discharges of patients have incredibly difficult jobs to weigh up those decisions,” Picton said.

“But I think it is absolutely incumbent upon us to make sure that we have a fully independent review of what’s occurred here to make sure we identify if there are any possible ways that we can change the system, which we will absolutely do so.

“That may well involve changes that need to happen around the laws around mental health or other clinical changes in the way those psychiatrist decisions are made within our hospital.”

Picton said the review would take “a number of months” and the findings will be released publicly.

He declined to say at this stage whether the case was a failure of the health system.

“We are dealing here with a situation in terms of clinical decision making and we need to have a proper examination of that by an independent expert before we rush to any particular judgements about what happened,” Picton said.

The Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, Sarah Quick, has been in touch with the family of Julie Seed, with the state government offering assistance for the funeral and flying family members to South Australia.