Page 118 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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I turn to bulk-billing. We have the lowest rates of bulk-billing in the nation. I ask you, Mr Speaker: who could get a bulk-billing GP in this town? We talked about the cost of living pressures on Canberrans yesterday. This is affecting their hip pocket and it is affecting their health. If you do get to a GP, you will pay more for a GP in Canberra than anywhere else in Australia.
We have seen things like the hospital car park fiasco. If anyone went to the Woden campus of the Canberra Hospital, they would have seen an absolute debacle. For the staff, the patients, the people trying to visit, that was an absolute mess-up. It was a hospital car park that was late and it was a hospital car park that went from $29 million to $45 million.
We should be used to this with this government. That is in fact the behaviour—that it is late, it is over budget and when they do build it, it causes massive disruption. Does that remind anybody of the GDE or the prison?
We have seen systemic bullying and workplace cultural issues across ACT Health. We have had a litany of complaints but still the minister will not release the workplace culture surveys. We saw the serious problems in oncology in patients like Vesna Nedic who were lost in the system.
Vesna was a patient who had finished her chemo. She tried to contact the radiotherapy department and got no response. She called, she left messages and she got no response. When she finally got through, she was pushed off to Sydney. Vesna heard me on the radio a couple of weeks ago and she sent me an email asking that I do not forget her and the other cancer patients who suffered and were ignored by the system. I will read that email that she sent me:
Hello Jeremy, I have heard you over the past few days on the radio talking about ACT Health. I don’t know if you recall but I was the woman who spoke to ABC radio (Alex Sloan) about having to leave Canberra to go to Sydney for radiation treatment last March. I am writing to you to remind you that when you talk about all of the issues related to ACT Health, such as bullying and obstetrics, that you remember to also bring up the dreadful treatment of Canberra residents who had to seek cancer treatment outside of Canberra for reasons that were literally swept under the rug.
This is not just something that is coming from the Canberra Liberals. It is not. This is coming from cancer patients; this is coming from doctors; this is coming from a broader section of the community. It is coming from people who have lost faith in this minister.
We saw this with problems relating to diabetic services. Again, this was not just raised by one or two disgruntled people. This is a broad section of the community. They are people who are at the front line of diabetic services. The doctors came forward and complained of staff shortages, a loss of morale, delays in appointing a clinical director and concerns with the diabetic services model. We had patients coming forward talking about delays to see endocrinologists, diabetes educators and inadequate services for young adults. They would rather go to Sydney for their treatment because they would get better treatment there.
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