Page 1620 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
nurse, often over an extended period of time. This is especially important when one considers the situation of people who are disadvantaged by such sudden medical centre closures, particularly when some of these patients may have been seeing the same doctor for many years. We can think of many such examples: the mother of children maybe with complex sets of needs, the elderly, those with chronic conditions. They are just a few examples.
I have been told that one such elderly patient had been seeing the same doctor for more than two decades at the Kippax practice. This person understandably feels comfortable speaking to her regular doctor of this particular practice, which is now closed, as he or she is, one presumes, intimately familiar with the patient’s medical history.
When I heard of this person’s situation I asked myself how comfortable that person would be to disclose personal information to another doctor who does not have the benefit of the written medical record, who may never have been consulted by that person in the past and now is confronted by this situation? Also, how soon could that patient obtain an appointment with such a doctor?
If these are the questions that immediately come to my mind, and I am forced to consider, I wonder why it is that the entity responsible for this sudden closure did not also think along similar lines. The example we are dealing with here at the moment relates to the Primary Health Care Group, and in particular Dr Edmund Bateman, its managing director, and the closure of the Kippax family practice. Of course, we also have the previous closure of the Wanniassa medical centre. The handling of these situations by those involved has, obviously, been entirely unsatisfactory for those people that rely on those services.
The reasons stated publicly related to a lack of viability and the fact that small practices find it difficult to attract doctors. They are not able to offer the facilities and services that larger practices might. I do not feel that this explains why the Kippax clinic was closed in such an abrupt manner and why no consideration was given to staff or patients in the process.
The Kippax family practice was staffed by three professionals who were informed, I believe, on the Tuesday that their place of employment would be closed the following day. Is there any wonder that this practice found it difficult to attract staff when one considers the disrespectful manner in which they treated these staff on this occasion?
Mr Hanson has criticised the Minister for Health, Ms Gallagher, in this place for calling on the entity to show corporate goodwill and for calling on them to be sensitive to the needs of the community. It seems to me to be completely reasonable for the minister to call upon the providers to be sensitive to the needs of the community when confronted with a flagrant disregard for consumers’ immediate needs. If the entity is unwilling to act in the best interests of the community, alternative solutions need to be found in the form of legislation to address the issue.
Consumers of health services in the ACT require better consideration and should not be abandoned by health providers in this way. As members are probably aware, I was
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .