Page 948 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Nothing that we have been told since that point in time convinces us or the community that matters have changed. It is right, it is just, it is only fair for us to continue to bring these matters to the minister and to ask her to explain how she is going to make it better. Statements that there are processes in place are not an answer. How? What is convincing about the answer? What will change things?
They said that areas of the maternity hospital were constantly over capacity, that there were daily over-bookings in labour and delivery, that there was a lack of available beds and a lack of available breast-feeding assistance, that the postnatal home visiting service had been substantially reduced and that critical functions of our health system were in crisis as a result of the lack of staffing. Now we have confirmation of the toxic culture they referred to.
Since the letter, we have seen time after time health workers and patients come forward to tell their story about overcrowding, understaffing and the poor workplace culture. We have heard stories about instances where there was no room for women to give birth. Rostering is designed to give the illusion of appropriate staffing. Nothing we have been told in this place gives us the confidence that this has in any way changed. It is simply not the case that there is any change.
I can attest to this from my own experience last year. I often witnessed generalist registered nurses without experience in maternity or of the procedures needed to be understood in the maternity unit, being used to cover midwife shifts. People were also constantly being asked to work extra hours or a double shift because staffing was just too low to operate properly.
That is a poorly managed and impossibly busy work environment. Sadly, I think that it is only a matter of time before very serious things happen, more serious than have already occurred. We have had a lot to say about these many failings, but what does the minister say? What does the minister do? How can the minister give any confidence that there is going to be an improvement?
Minister Rattenbury’s excuse that this has been going on for a long time, that it predates the minister, is not a reason for us to have confidence in the minister. Just because a problem has been perpetrated by the government since its beginning does not mean that the minister should not be fixing it. What a ridiculous justification!
Rather than take the feedback from the women and men working in the women’s and children’s hospital and promise to do better, the concerns were dismissed. It was said that they were not accurate. When someone brings you a problem, you do not tell them it is not right. It was said that the hospital provided safe and high-quality care for women. We cannot have it both ways. Either there is a problem or there is not. Now we know. We have had reviews and evidence to say that there is a problem. The reflection on the staff who wrote the letter was that they were lying and that there was nothing to see here. That is nonsense. It is Orwellian doublespeak.
The minister also said that the ACT Health restructure would further provide an opportunity to really focus on service delivery and staff feedback. “It will be vital to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video