Grievance Debate

Regional Health Care

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:26): November is Rural Health Month, and, as the clock ticks down this parliamentary year, I take the opportunity to submit my report card on the Malinauskas government's priorities, or lack thereof, in regional health.

Members interjecting:

Ms PRATT: While members may laugh on the opposite side of the chamber, it will not surprise my colleagues that, in grading this paper, I give this government a big F for fail. The National Rural Health Alliance reports that seven million people live in rural and remote Australia, and they experience a triple health disadvantage when it comes to distance, lack of services and higher costs, despite their sizeable social, cultural and economic contribution.

Five minutes is certainly not enough to catalogue the many ways in which this government is failing to deliver life-saving and life-improving services to thousands of South Australians. The following is a list of issues that we want corrected and improved: quality of life, equity of access and a reduction in presentations and admissions to our city hospitals.

It is a fail for maternity patients across country SA, who should have no faith in the minister, who says he is doing everything possible to recruit more midwives to our regions. This year alone the five communities of Waikerie, Kangaroo Island, Kapunda, Gawler and Whyalla have lost midwifery services, and three remain in that situation. I am sure the member for Giles is watching it closely. I would say to the member: which town will be next?

It is a fail for rural mental health and unmet needs. When it comes to accessing psychiatric services in the regions we are worse off than Mongolia but, wait for it, better off than Uzbekistan. Reports released by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist have identified that 19,000 South Australians have unmet needs in accessing psychosocial services, but Minister Picton has failed to properly engage with the state's peak advocacy body, the Mental Health Coalition, to resolve much-needed funding to relieve the suffering felt by so many. If only we had an advocate who was appointed by the Premier who could bring more attention to this very chamber on the plight of suicide rates in our state, the prevalence of mental distress in the regions and the shameful lack of funding in early intervention and prevention.

I note that the member for Elder has only delivered one speech on mental health in the last 12 months and has reminded us at least nine times of her title. So I ask her, as she walks out: where has her advocacy been in this chamber? Where is the government's voice and leadership on mental health and suicide prevention? Thank God for rural champions like Dr Kate Gunn, the genius behind ifarmwell; Alex Thomas, the founder of Plant a Seed for Safety; and Steph Schmidt, a psychologist, farmer and Agrifutures Rural Women's Award winner. We are in good hands with these fabulous women and regional leaders. It is another fail for the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme, which we call PATS. The minister offers crumbs to a regional community that needs to see serious reform.

Mr Hughes: You were in government for four years.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Giles!

Ms PRATT: The member for Giles, this is a fail. The member for Giles has also been on the record speaking about PATS—every country member does, Mr Speaker, as you well know. There are reports of inexcusable processing delays. Too many people are ineligible because they do not fit the current criteria. For those patients who require overnight stays in the city the rebate of $40 is insulting, as the member for Mount Gambier said today, reminding us that it has not been increased since 2014. I am calling on the government to reverse this disadvantage urgently.

It is a fail on regional radiation therapy. South Australia remains the only state or territory in this country that does not provide radiation therapy services anywhere in regional South Australia, so the only option remaining to a patient who lives in the country with that diagnosis is to travel the long distance to this city or interstate.

If you live in regional South Australia, you are 1.3 times more likely to die from cancer—it is that simple—and so I give this government zero out of 10 when it comes to workforce planning, lack of incentives, threats of a GP payroll tax, failure to meet national standards for radiotherapy, embedding disadvantage and increased costs for our country patients and a general disregard for our wellbeing. We are out of sight and out of mind.