Page 4163 - Week 13 - Thursday, 25 November 1993
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Regrettably, Madam Speaker, there is a difficulty with these issues. I would ask members to have a look at a 17 November 1992 article in the Canberra Times which sets out the position of some of these people. The article related to the Lankuts matter. I quote from the newspaper article:
Mr Lankuts said the obstetricians had advised his wife to get out of Canberra.
This was as a result of one of her complaints. It continued:
She had rung every other obstetrician in Canberra but had been turned down. Eventually, she had found a doctor and his locum who would see her, but had gone to Adelaide to have the baby, fearful that these two doctors might not be on duty when the baby arrived.
The people who have complained to me about these matters are women of child-bearing age. They are not prepared to stand up front on these issues because if it comes to the point of them needing to receive attention they are very worried that they might be discriminated against.
Mrs Carnell: Unsubstantiated comments. We all have millions of them.
MR BERRY: I ask you again: Would you let your workers treat your clients like that? The answer is no.
Mrs Carnell: I do not have any contractors working for me.
MR BERRY: You have workers.
Mrs Carnell: I also would not be behaving like you.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Members may have heard on ABC radio a report of a road accident around Yass today where a person was injured. I am advised that a doctor from Yass wanted to transfer a patient at about 12.15 today. This was somebody who was hit by a truck on the highway and, according to my advice, had closed head and chest injuries and a compound fracture of the leg. The AMA hot line was rung.
I should describe to members what the AMA hot line is. There are three of them. There is a surgical one, there is an orthopaedic one and there is an obstetrics one, and there is a keeper at each gate; that is, there is a senior member of the AMA who handles that hot line and, of course, they prevent access by the patients to the various VMOs, so the VMOs cannot be identified as refusing service. The person on the end of the phone refuses services or argues the toss with the doctors at the hospital who want emergency services over whether it is an emergency or not. The report to me said that somebody rang the AMA hot line and the person on the hot line said that the patient should go from Yass to Sydney or to Goulburn. If he came to Woden Valley Hospital they would not provide VMO care. This doctor rang the doctor in Yass, who said that the decision may well cost that patient his leg. There was no further discussion of the issue. Subsequently, helicopter retrieval had to be arranged and the patient was transferred to Sydney.
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