Page 1956 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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MS GALLAGHER: You are appalling! Do you have proof, Mrs Burke, that I would sack them if they said anything?
MR SPEAKER: Minister, just resume your seat for a minute. Mrs Burke, I warn you: no more interjections. I call the Minister for Health.
MS GALLAGHER: This is the type of bullying that we are receiving and that nurses are receiving from the opposition. Mrs Burke does not realise that when she says nurses get sacked for speaking out she is not attacking me; she is attacking the nurses.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come to the subject matter.
MS GALLAGHER: She is attacking the nurses and the management in the hospital.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come to the subject matter of the question asked by Mrs Dunne.
MS GALLAGHER: She is attacking the chief nurse and every other nurse who works under her. That is what she does not realise. She has no idea of the damage that she is doing to the nursing workforce. She has no understanding at all. There is absolutely no shortage of supplies at hospitals. There might have been delays in the one case that was raised in a media release that was issued by Mrs Burke. There were delays in a chemotherapy patient having the right order of chemotherapy, which delayed treatment for 1½ days, with no adverse clinical outcome. But there is no shortage of supplies at all. There is no financial reason for there to be a shortage of any supplies. The supplies are managed at the hospital that we manage or at the hospital that we do not manage.
Many of Mrs Burke’s complaints might need to be taken up with the Little Company of Mary, which manages Calvary, if her concerns are about Calvary. I have examined every one of her ridiculous allegations that she puts out day by day. When I look at the allegations I think that they cannot possibly be true, but I do the responsible thing and say, “Can someone provide me with advice on this? Is this true? Are there any problems in relation to supplies?” and I receive back information. Unless the member can prove otherwise, other than her waffle and her little allegations in media releases, she has nothing to stand by.
MRS DUNNE: I ask a supplementary question. Minister, now that you have given us assurances that there are no problems with the amount of supplies, what action will you take to ensure that those supplies are in the right place at the right time so that people are not waiting a day and a half for oncology services or waiting in theatre to find the right piece of equipment to deal with their problem?
MS GALLAGHER: There are staff in the hospital whose job it is to ensure that the supplies that are ordered—this relates to individual relationships between wards and the supplies area, depending on what they are after—are managed on a day-to-day basis. If Mrs Dunne is suggesting that it is my job to go and stop trolleys in the wards at our public hospital to make sure that nobody runs out of the necessary equipment, she is taking ministerial responsibility just a little too far.
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