Page 1263 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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In particular, downgrades of patients’ urgency category, often without documented clinical reasons, raised considerable doubts about the reliability and appropriateness of the clinical classifications …
The Auditor-General found systemic problems:
ACT Health conducted an internal review of the outpatient services at TCH and a draft report in October 2010 found deficiencies in strategic planning, inconsistent application of policies and procedures … ad hoc processes for managing the waiting lists, and poor and inefficient communications with clinicians …
So across the board we have seen these same systemic problems, which have resulted in patients ultimately missing out, patients waiting longer than they should. We have seen some improvement in GP numbers lately, and I welcome that. I really welcome that, but for how many years did the opposition have to bang on in this place and say, “Do something about general practice”? We instigated an inquiry in this place and it was only then that the government, that very next day, started their task force. But we had a minister who repeatedly said, “Ain’t my problem. I have no responsibility. There is nothing I can do”. We demonstrated there were things that she could do. She finally did it and we are seeing an improvement. But again, why did it take so long for that to occur?
We have the bullying in obstetrics. Again, we have the denials. We have the minister saying, “Stop throwing stones and stop damaging the unit. All I’ve seen is mud being slung around and no substantiation.” But we had 13 obstetricians who resigned. It is extraordinary.
She then, and the Chief Minister at the time, attacked the doctors and wanted an audit of medical board complaints over the 10 years, to go after the doctors. It was described by the AMA, by the doctors, at the time as a witch-hunt. Then the truth came out, and it was:
The clinical governance at the Canberra Hospital maternity unit appears to be inadequate … There is evidence of systemic resistance to address staff performance issues … There was an apparent lack of cohesion amongst the executive team at the Canberra Hospital … There appears to be considerable confusion over the role and delineation of some senior management positions … It appears that the chain of command often fails …
And on and on. We saw doctors groups calling on the minister to resign.
We go back in time and we remember the Calvary fiasco. The government are now saying they want to do everything at Calvary but, after the election before last, we had this minister trying to purchase Calvary and use Clare Holland House as a sweetener. Even that was too much for the Greens, and the deal fell apart. But bizarrely now you have members of the Labor Party saying it should wither and die on the vine but it seems to be where they want to put the beds, and they are not talking about the concerns with the tower block.
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