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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-18 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

COUNTRY HEALTH CARE PLAN

The Hon. R.G. KERIN (Frome) (15:12): I did not see a lot of government members out there on the steps of Parliament House at 1 o'clock. What we saw out there today was a perfect opportunity for the minister and his colleagues actually to hear what country people really think of his country health plan. I am not so sure if the minister has a version that has been doctored by the bureaucracy, because today he kept saying things which are not consistent with what is in the publicly released plan, and that is obvious when you look at what services will be available in places such as Port Pirie and Clare.

Today we heard five speakers out there who very eloquently put forward the opinion of country people. Alison Edwards, who is a rural doctor at Port Broughton, has made her disgust very evident through the media over the last week or so. She is running a smallish hospital at Port Broughton. If you look at a place like Port Broughton, as Alison knows, many people have invested and bought their houses there because it has a working hospital. Well, Port Broughton might not be any orphan but, like many of the other 40 hospitals, it is at real risk of losing its doctors.

It is all right for the minister to say that emergency services will remain in those 40-odd hospitals, but he has given absolutely no guarantee that those hospitals will have doctors, and he has given no indication whatsoever of what backup is available and whether, if any of those hospitals lose their doctors, they will not close as working hospitals.

Steve Holmes also spoke. He is the President of the Rural Doctors Association of South Australia. Steve is a GP at Clare and, like Alison, he very accurately portrayed the situation of the doctors involved. Steve is in one of those areas where the minister says that we are going to have all these extra services. If you look at the hospitals that will be downgraded around Clare, and then look at Clare Hospital, and if you look at the number of beds that will be closed in those feeder hospitals and add them to what has already been dealt with in Clare, you will see that there are not enough beds in Clare. If you go to Port Pirie you will see the same situation: there are not enough beds in Port Pirie, and there is no budgetary consideration whatsoever to increase the number of beds in those areas.

It is all right for the minister to say that we have got about 0.6 of a bed here and 0.6 of a bed there, but the overall situation is such that the number of beds he is closing is way over the actual numbers that are spare at any of the 11 facilities that he says have been upgraded. The health plan does not say 'upgraded'. The health plan actually says that they may keep some of the services they currently have. I do not know how that is an upgrade; I cannot see that at all.

Peter Sharley spoke on behalf of the state AMA and Peter Rischbieth, who is the national President of the Rural Doctors Association, also spoke. These guys really understand the situation. They have worked hard, not only in their own communities, but they have got out there and represented country people on a state and national stage to ensure that our interests are looked after. Helen Colliver, who is the President of Women in Agriculture and Business, spoke very well on behalf of country women and how they feel about what the minister is trying to do.

There is great concern out there. It was obvious from the number who had driven a long way and from the number of buses that came to Adelaide that these people are very fearful of what services are going to be available in their towns. They are worried about their own health, they are worried about their parents in many cases, their children and their grandchildren. This government has deserted them.

The minister tries to make light of it but, fair dinkum, there are 40-odd towns out there that are at real risk of losing their hospital, because one thing that the minister has not explained is why doctors will stay if he closes a lot of services. Some will stay through pure loyalty, but doctors are there to provide a range of services. All of a sudden most of those services are going to be taken from them and, quite frankly, this government is just trading on the good faith of those doctors who will stay, take a cut in income, not be able to do what they have trained to do and just sit there and help the government out with 24-hour emergency services. It just will not happen. We will lose many doctors from those hospitals. If we lose doctors out of those 43 hospitals, the government has not made clear what its back-up plan is to ensure that those hospitals do not actually have to close.

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