Page 1621 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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working as a registered nurse and a midwife for many years. At one stage in the early years of my career I was a nursing sister in a general practitioner’s rooms; so I am very aware of the importance of decision making in relation to such practices, and the processes by which patients are informed of those decisions.
In this context, my motion calls on the ACT government to clarify, in legislation, the obligations of general practitioners to provide adequate notice to their patients of closures, transfers or relocations of their practice. I find it regrettable that the government is required to address a situation in this way, where people have been taken for granted by a corporate entity that has afforded them little consideration. However, that is why I have brought forward this motion that we are debating today.
I encourage the minister to investigate legislative provisions in relation to the obligations and responsibilities of health professionals and business owners in respect of closure of a health service practice in the ACT. It is essential that effective transition occurs following the closure of such a professional health practice. That is why legislation should provide for this to happen, so that adequate notice is given to all those affected by such closures, and such pain and inconvenience to people that were involved in these recent closures will not be repeated in the future. I commend the motion to the Assembly. I look forward to members’ support.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (10.48): I want to thank Ms Porter for bringing this motion forward to the house. It certainly is a dismal situation that we find ourselves in here in the ACT with the closure of so many GP practices. Ms Porter is clearly missing the larger point. The major point is that so many GP practices are closing. It is not simply a matter of when patients are being informed. It is the failure of this government to have taken action over so many years to prevent closure after closure occurring.
Ms Porter certainly highlights a number of issues in her speech and says that she is dismayed and a little angry, as patients would be. Let me tell you, Mr Speaker, that people all over Canberra are dismayed and a little angry. It is not just by the closure of Kippax; it is by the closure of so many GPs services and this government’s inaction over so long a period.
I imagine that by now Ms Porter has put out a press release in anticipation of saving the poor people of Kippax. Once again, Ms Porter is striding to the rescue of her constituents. I hope that the press release has not gone out yet, Ms Porter, in light, as I say, of the embarrassing situation you have had previously.
I find it quite remarkable that she would want to actually bring forward an example of this government’s failure to act on GPs as we saw in Kippax, but maybe she thinks that this is now an opportunity to give the health minister an opportunity to wheel out the terms of reference of her task force or other action that she is finally taking to remedy what has been quite a dreadful situation.
No doubt Ms Porter will claim the credit for this with her constituents. She will put out a press release explaining how she has made such a difference to the people of Kippax. Moving to the motion, I ask whether Ms Porter did not notice that there have
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