Page 944 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 17 March 2010
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She says that the hospital needs to improve communication with patients. They are told by doctors that they have to have this treatment, or it is strongly recommended, and then they are told by the hospital they need to delay it. What an appalling situation.
The financial burden is real for many people as well. If you are told, “No, you cannot have your treatment here, you have got to go to Sydney,” how do you afford that? As Vesna said, she does not know if she can stay at the hospital or if she will have to pay for a serviced apartment or a hotel. She was looking forward to returning to work part time in the public service during her treatment but that is no longer possible from Sydney.
I understand, and the minister may choose to clarify this, that you are provided with $36 a day for your out-of-pocket expenses. If you can find anywhere to stay in Sydney for $36 a day, good luck. And that is on the back of Mr Stanhope spending $600 for a half-day trip to Sydney. What a stark contrast we see there, Mr Speaker.
One of the reasons for this appalling situation that has been put forward by the minister is the resignations of six staff at short notice. I do question why so many staff have resigned so quickly. The minister has said that two were planned, that this is a regular turnover, that this happens all the time. If that is the case, why was this not anticipated? Why did we not know, if this happens all the time, that this is something that is likely to occur? Why is it that so many staff have resigned so quickly and at such short notice from the Canberra Hospital? Why is that?
The minister has failed to explain why that is. Are we not providing the correct remuneration? Is there a bad culture there at the Canberra Hospital? Why is it that people do not want to work there, Ms Gallagher? That is clearly what is occurring. The minister does not seem to know. Maybe she can tell us today what is going on.
Although she has been provided with a briefing by the media that this was the situation on 26 February, when she was interviewed on 2 March the minister was unable to answer some very clear questions. She did not even know how many patients were required to travel interstate for treatment. I think it is inexcusable that she was unaware of this situation prior to being alerted by the media, but the fact that she then did not have a draft of the key facts four or five days after being alerted by the media is inexcusable. She either did not know what was going on or she was being deliberately obtuse.
We will remember the rhetoric from the minister in the sitting week in February. When asked a question she said:
We have got services being offered across our hospitals that have never been offered in this town before. People had to go interstate and leave their families for treatment; we are changing that.
I think any cancer sufferer out there, friends of cancer sufferers or the general community would have believed that that was the case and not that this appalling
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