Page 1958 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
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MR BERRY: She writes:
Despite the progress of his disease, and consequently his gradual deterioration, he continues to work as a technical officer in the CSIRO Division of Forestry ...
Is that untrue, Mr Humphries?
Mr Humphries: No.
MR BERRY: No, that is true.
Mr Humphries: That is not what you said that was untrue.
MR BERRY: Is the fact that he was dying untrue?
Mr Humphries: No.
MR BERRY: No, it is true. She writes further:
... because he works, under existing schemes we are not entitled to any assistance to pay for oxygen. We pay for it ourselves.
The cruel twist, of course, is that the Government has been unwilling to provide that free oxygen to this dying man who would, of course, if he were in the hospital system, receive it. But because he is having a bit of a go - and he is in his twilight time - he is not able to get it, and his family, of course, suffer as a result.
It is serious enough that the Government has not provided that oxygen. It made the decision on 1 May that there will be no oxygen provided, because this person is not a resident who has a specialist referral and who holds a health care entitlement card; and the next reason is that he is not terminally ill and has not been registered on the palliative care program, which is usually in the final stages of life. This guy is going to die and the Minister quite cruelly, in my view, has refused the application for assistance.
But what is worse about this, and what is totally unforgivable, is the fact that, knowing full well that this family was in deep trouble, the Minister has taken 2 months to give them an answer. That is absolutely outrageous and over the top. There is no excuse for that - absolutely no excuse. There can be no excuse. He is to be condemned for that.
The next issue I would like to raise in the couple of minutes I have left concerns the pathology department in the public hospital system. I was going to raise this question at question time, but the Chief Minister cut question time off. The question I was going to ask was:
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