Page 947 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (11.40): As Minister Rattenbury has pointed out, there are a number of very concerning, longstanding, ongoing concerns in our health system. A fatalism has taken over this government, which is astounding. We hear so often about complicated problems that are hard to fix. The women’s and children’s hospital in particular has a number of issues in respect of how it is operating. Maternity services and the staff at the women’s and children’s hospital continue to be under extreme pressure.
Staff exhaustion is a big problem. I was recently in a lift with doctors. They were talking to each other in this hospital about having had five hours sleep in three days. The minister dares to come in here and say that we do not appreciate the staff. Staff who looked after me for 14 days last year sat on my bed telling me about the absolutely unreasonable demands being put on them by this government. The minister must understand that, at the end of the day, those demands are being put on the staff by her.
There are constant, relentless requests for overtime. We now know that there is systemic bullying, leading to poor workplace culture and a high staff turnover. There are infrastructure fails. Even I saw the response to rising damp and ants in the ICU of the main hospital. Now we have confirmation via the KPMG report that there are concerns about the structural integrity of the main building.
When I came in here to speak to a similar motion not so long ago and I said that the hospital looked like something out of the Soviet bloc, everyone on the other side scoffed at me. Now the KPMG report says that it is worse than that, that there are structural integrity issues.
There are delays in delivering the building for surgical procedures, with interventional radiology, emergency dysfunction and massive wait times. Mr Reid’s report has shown a completely failed management model. There is no trust because there is no trust deserved. This government has had 18 years to work on these issues. There is no convincing argument being presented by the government, nor any evidence that it is about to stop. That is why we are moving this motion today.
You would think that by now there would be an “I am sorry.” You would think that the minister would be saying, “We have actually failed; we have failed the staff; we have failed some patients; and we have failed the people of Canberra.” As members know, last year nurses took matters into their own hands at huge risk to themselves, personally and professionally, because they were at breaking point after being bullied and ignored for so long.
These hardworking nurses wrote an open letter to the minister asking her to finally act on overcrowding and the dangerously low levels of staff at the women’s and children’s hospital. The letter, which should have set alarm bells ringing, stated that given the poor staffing and hospital structure under this minister, patient safety could not be guaranteed.
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