Page 3673 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 October 1991
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in client care. There have been concerns about those sorts of issues, but clients have always been actively encouraged towards maximum independence. Indeed, that is the ethos of community nursing. Within that ethos, clients have often been encouraged to attend to their own simple dressings, and that will continue.
We also will carefully liaise with hospital discharge staff, as changes develop in the hospital system, to ensure that the impact on clients can be minimised. We have two community nurses within the Woden Valley Hospital acting as discharge planners and coordinators to achieve that. It is obvious that, where possible, discharge from hospital will occur prior to the weekend.
Also, a proposal has been put forward, as is reported in the Canberra Times, to drop scoliosis screening in year 7. That was put forward because this screening had been eliminated in other States. The ACT participates in a national forum on child and family services, which focuses on ways to increase effectiveness of services for children and families. Through community nursing education programs for parents and teachers, the problem of scoliosis in adolescents can be identified and referred to the appropriate health professionals.
Community Nursing has also proposed - but this is still to be traversed by way of consultation - ceasing some routine first home visits to new mothers. They give reasons, such as that there is no documented evidence to support the benefits or effectiveness of routine first home visits for mothers who have not been assessed as needing this visit in the first week after discharge. I think the board has yet to be convinced that it is the case, but it nevertheless is a proposal that is up for consideration. There was a suggestion that follow-up advice could be given by telephone. That apparently happens in some other States. It is something that has to be looked at in the course of changing the direction of health services.
But I have to emphasise, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, that the focus of service delivery in the ACT will remain in accordance with the Australian Labor Party platform. It will be about providing access to an affordable health care system which provides quality care. We will not be forcing people into the private sector, as was the case with the previous Government. We will be working with the community to ensure that better health services prevail. But, first, we have to repair the damage, which is severe. There is hard work to be done; it is not easy; we have to move at a pace of change with which we are not comfortable. But we will do it because it is time for hard decisions. The Labor Government is a responsible government; it is about providing better services for the people of the ACT.
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