Page 508 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 1991
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health services to small catchment areas on a sessional basis, usually three hours each week or less. After community consultation, successful trials of all-day clinics in Kippax and Dickson were undertaken. Client attendance rates increased, indicating that the extended hours of service suited clients more than the shorter operating hours from sessional clinics. As well as being more acceptable to clients, the all-day clinic model offers increased effectiveness in deployment of staff and resources because of time saved in setting up smaller clinics.
Under the new arrangements, services will be transferred out of areas of low demand, where birth rates have dropped. In designing the all-day clinic changes, extensive consultations have taken place between staff and clients in the areas affected. I can indicate, for example, that that consultation has been, to my way of thinking, very effective. In fact I have received, to my recollection, only one letter from a constituent expressing regret or complaining about the new arrangements. The new arrangements allow for increased emphasis on parenting skills groups and other group activities aimed at illness prevention and health promotion of families at risk, particularly those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.
As of December last, 40 of the 59 infant health clinics operated for three hours per week or less. In 1991, some 36 all-day clinics will operate in the ACT. Interestingly, the Hornsby area health service in Sydney, with a similar total population to that of the ACT, has only 11 early childhood centres. I think that, all in all, this redirection of resources is in the interests and to the requirements of most clients. There will certainly be some people who will find it inconvenient not to have one as near as it was in the past. I hope, however, that those people will be compensated by the knowledge that there are now services open for much longer hours at some other nearby regional centre.
MR MOORE: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. My interpretation of that was that there were 59 and there are now 36, so 23 have been closed. My question was: How many health clinics have been closed? I said "in the last six months", but you have referred to a longer period than that. Perhaps you will clarify that for me. But the point that is even more significant is that there is clearly a much greater waiting time. Certainly when I was at home with my children we may have had to wait 15 or 20 minutes, or even up to half an hour; but it would appear that people are waiting an hour and a half to two hours in your new super-duper system. That is clearly a disadvantage to people.
Mr Berry: It is in crisis.
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