Page 1093 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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Oxygen Supply for Terminally Ill Patient
MR BERRY: This question, Mr Speaker, is directed to the Minister for Health, and is designed to show him up for his usual inaction. A month ago I sought and was granted an urgent meeting with the Minister concerning the supply of oxygen for a terminally ill man who was trying to spend the remainder of his life at home and at work rather than in hospital. The Minister reassured me that he would give the matter urgent consideration. That was a month ago. One month later, despite repeated phone calls - - -
Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Mr Berry took issue with me a little while ago, saying that I was making a rather long answer. I rather suspect that he is reading a very long question, and he might table it.
MR BERRY: I will. One month later, Mr Speaker, despite repeated phone calls from my office, there has been no response from this Minister, and I am informed by the man's wife that there has never been any acknowledgment of her letter, let alone an answer. The man's health deteriorates further every day, and the high cost of this oxygen is mounting up. When will the Minister respond?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, it is extremely unfortunate, I think, that Mr Berry seeks to raise personal cases of people who are dealing with my office, or with his office, as political ammunition in this place. I did meet with Mr Berry and discuss with him the case of this man. I indicated to him at that stage that the case was not one that could be viewed in isolation and that if any particular dispensation or concessions were granted to that individual it would obviously have a flowthrough effect to other people in the same position.
I have received some preliminary advice from my department and I have sought further information. If Mr Berry wants to have me get up right now and give him an answer, I am very happy to give an answer, and it would be that I cannot help this gentleman. However, I am prepared to take the matter more seriously than that. Unlike Mr Berry, I am prepared to give the time it requires to get a considered policy to give - - -
Mr Berry: He has not got the time.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am sorry; as I have indicated to Mr Berry already, it is not just a question of this one individual. There are many people who fall into the same category and who would be affected by a change of policy. I cannot take individual X out in the community and grant him a concession on domiciliary oxygen and not grant it to everybody else out in the community in the same category. However pressing the case might be, I cannot do that, because if I give it to him I have to - logically, reasonably, rationally - give it to everybody who is in the same position as that man.
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