Page 2896 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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is to provide health services to the community. This government has failed to do this in a manner that meets community needs or expectations, particularly within our public hospital system. It is tragic, but nonetheless a fact, that the situation within our public hospitals is deteriorating at a rapid rate. The current health minister has seen these problems coming for a long time. Given the amount of information the health minister has in regard to the state of our public hospitals and her inability to act in a timely and appropriate manner, Mr Speaker, I have to seriously question if she is up to the job.
Recently we heard of the tragic death of a young man at the Canberra Hospital emergency department, and this is yet another woeful example that the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, and the health minister, Katy Gallagher, and now the acting health minister, Simon Corbell—who once was a health minister—should stand condemned for their inability and incapacity to manage the health system, and, in particular, the public hospitals in the ACT.
Mr Speaker, there are many problems; we know them and we hear about them. But this lot opposite seems to arrogantly avoid the subject and just wash over it. We have heard many, many, many horrific stories, at least since I have been shadow Minister for Health, that all point to a failure of management. Of course, this was not conceded by the Chief Minister and the health minister and the acting health minister for a long time. No, it was the commonwealth’s fault; of course it was the commonwealth’s fault. These failures and these problems and these issues that crop up week in, week out point to a failure of the Chief Minister to ensure that his appointed health minister and, more lately, the acting health minister are keeping pace with a crucial portfolio area.
I have received many examples of how the system is under pressure, and we know, we have heard it, staff are under pressure, incredibly so. Ultimately, that means that the people in our community are being let down—the recent death that occurred in the emergency department; a woman that had to wait 41 hours in the emergency department for an operation; a patient who had undergone major brain surgery being discharged without any medication. There are some 14 documented cases which I understand are currently being investigated by a clinical privileges committee in regard to allegations of less than optimal surgical outcomes in relation to oral and maxillofacial surgery. It should be noted at this point, of course, that the government has sat on a crucial report about this vital area for two years, despite a recommendation that:
It is both urgent and essential to re-establish the proper direction and balance of service commitments in the specialities of oral and maxillofacial surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
This still to date has not been achieved. What do they not get about “urgent and essential”? Jon Stanhope also commissioned a report, the Reid report, back in 2002, which also made recommendations in regard to oral and maxillofacial surgery. Mr Speaker, I will go on with more examples: patients still having to travel interstate for chemotherapy; a Canberra resident, whom Mr Stefaniak has talked about, spent four days in an ICU interstate and then was transferred back to Canberra and left in a waiting room for admission for at least four hours. That man subsequently required a triple bypass.
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