Page 690 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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MR HANSON: The fifth issue I raise is that of GP numbers in the ACT, which are the lowest per capita in the nation. The ACT has experienced a steady decline in the number of GPs per capita whilst the rest of the nation has actually been increasing at about a level of eight per cent. The net result is that we now are about 60 GPs short in the ACT community.
The sixth issue I raise is that of the mental health sector. We have heard much about the draft plan today, but it is clearly a sector that is struggling to meet increased demand. As we have seen, there is a lack of investment in our community sector. That means that we have been unable to meet the target of 75 per cent of clients receiving services within seven days of discharge.
The seventh issue is the important one of staffing, in particular that of nurses. With an ageing workforce, we have a nursing population on average of 45.4 years; 44 per cent of this workforce is part time. So with all this increase in demand that is expected in the coming years—the healthcare tsunami, as I have heard it referred to—we are already in a perilous state in the ACT in many areas of our healthcare system. I ask the question: how does the government expect to meet the increased demand of 50 per cent or 60 per cent as has been highlighted in the next 10 to 15 years, if we are already in such a deep hole now?
The performance indicators did not simply deteriorate overnight. This has not happened in the last six months. Certainly, I am not pointing the direct responsibility at the current health minister, although if you look at the deterioration over the course of the Stanhope-Gallagher government, it does illustrate that this government has failed in regard to management of the health system.
We are now in so many areas the worst performing jurisdiction in Australia. We know, for example, that in 2001, 80 per cent of emergency department patients in triage 3 presentations were assessed and treated within the recommended time. Now that figure rests at 52 per cent. We have seen a significant decline in performance for the treatment of emergency department triage category 3 patients and category 4 is resting currently at 51 per cent, which is down as well. Those two figures, and there are others, are indicative of a health system that is in decline in terms of its ability to meet key performance targets.
There are lots of numbers and statistics in all these reports, and I have raised some of them. But these are actually real people represented behind those statistics. I regularly hear, as the shadow minister, of cases of people waiting in the emergency department—we probably all hear of those—for unacceptable periods of time. These are people who are in pain and in discomfort.
I hear of people who cannot find a GP. They are looking for a GP and they find it very difficult to find a local GP. I guess that in some cases they have to present to the emergency department, they see someone at CALMS or they have to pay for their treatment.
For elective surgery also, people are on unacceptable levels of waiting times. I hear regularly of patients who actually go into New South Wales to seek treatment because
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