Page 3046 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 August 2008
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The only concern I had about a referral to a committee on this matter was that the committee will not be able to do anything to change this decision. My concern is that committees then start reviewing decisions made by private companies. If a newsagent in Wanniassa was to close and relocate to Phillip, is that something that needs to be inquired into by a standing committee?
Let us be real about what we can do to solve this issue for the people of Wanniassa. We can try to look at ways to enable another surgery to open there. We need to move past the decision of Primary Health Care. We cannot change it. Mr Bateman will not change that decision. We also need to acknowledge the work that Primary Health Care have done in the ACT since coming to town. There is no denying that bulk billing rates have gone up significantly since Ginninderra and Phillip medical centres opened. People’s access to after-hours GPs has expanded as well.
Whilst we can say that we are not happy with Primary Health Care’s decision, we also need to recognise them as a very valuable player in our overall health landscape here in the ACT. It is the reality of the situation we are in with a shortage of GPs. We need to look at what we can do around the Tuggeranong Valley. The walk-in centres are one area we as an ACT government can look at. We have already announced our plans around that. I look forward to the support of the doctors and the local GPs in assisting us to move forward with that model of care.
But it is not the only model of care appropriate for the valley. We need to do what we can to make sure another medical practice is able to open up in Wanniassa, should there be any GPs prepared to take on that business. That is where we need bipartisan support—to work on it; not pointing the finger at who is to blame when everyone knows that it is not my fault that this has happened. We need to work together to make sure we come up with a genuine solution for the issue at hand. That is what I am working on.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mrs Burke.
MRS BURKE: Thank you, minister. What steps have you now taken to ensure that this practice stays operating?
Mr Stanhope interjecting—
MRS BURKE: That is what she would do. Let us hear what she has done—there is a difference Mr Stanhope.
MS GALLAGHER: I have outlined exactly what I have done. I cannot stop this decision; you cannot and you cannot; neither can the Chief Minister, neither can the Speaker, neither can anyone in the public gallery. Primary Health Care has made a decision.
Mrs Burke: What have you done to make sure it stays operating—that was the question. The question was: what have you done?
MS GALLAGHER: Your question asked what I have done to stop this from occurring.
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