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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-22 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

LYMPHOEDEMA ASSESSMENT CLINIC

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:19): The Lymphoedema Assessment Clinic at the Flinders Medical Centre has been forced from its current location. The minister read out a press release from the Flinders Surgical Oncology Unit at Flinders Medical Centre written by spin doctors—not real doctors, spin doctors—who claim that the professor in charge of this assessment clinic, Professor Neil Piller, is supporting the move.

Professor Piller is in Toronto at the moment presenting a paper on lymphoedema. He is a world authority on lymphoedema. I cannot speak to Professor Piller at the moment. I have put a call into him. I am expecting a call back. I would like to get his firsthand view on this, not the spin doctors' point of view from Flinders Medical Centre. I have just spoken to his staff who I believe genuinely believe that Dr Piller has been forced into this position.

He may not have jumped up and down and said, 'We're not going to go. We're not going to go.' This is an absolute outrage, because he has been forced to go. Many academics are forced into these positions because they have research grants and they have research programs in jeopardy. They are forced to accept a fait accompli. There is no way that I will believe for one second that Professor Neil Piller is supporting this move away from Flinders Medical Centre.

The Flinders Medical Centre website (which I have downloaded) talks about the Lymphoedema Assessment Clinic. It talks about how people can be referred from the Flinders Medical Centre. A general practitioner can refer them. The website states that internal referrals from medical officers are also accepted. It also talks about the location of the assessment clinic: it is on the ground floor of the car park building at the Flinders Medical Centre. The website states that 'clinical trials may be held in ward areas'. It is hand in glove.

The Lymphoedema Assessment Clinic is hand in glove with the Flinders Medical Centre, and also with Flinders University. The private patients who go there are forced to go there. Why? Because there is no public service that is at this level. Sure, some therapists are out there who do assist in the treatment of lymphoedema. Let us not forget that lymphoedema affects 300,000 Australians. I do not know the figure in South Australia.

With respect to third stage lymphoedema, we would all be familiar with those graphic pictures of people with elephantitis, because that is what lymphoedema is in its extreme. A chap from Broken Hill told me today that he could not get his pants on because his legs were that fat and that swollen because of lymphoedema. He came down from Broken Hill. He has been travelling for over 20 years to visit Professor Piller and his therapist. He is now able to have a normal life. He told me today that he would be in a wheelchair if it was not for this assessment clinic.

This assessment clinic may be a private clinic working in a public hospital, but it is providing excellent services to South Australians who do not have the facilities in a public hospital. I do not believe for one moment that Professor Piller is supporting a move away from that facility. Why would he when there are referrals from medical officers from Flinders Medical Centre being accepted? Trials are being done in the wards of Flinders Medical Centre. It goes hand in glove.

This is not something that the opposition is making up. I have spoken to the staff, I have spoken to the patients. I believe them. I don't believe the spin doctors from the media unit at the Flinders Medical Centre. I am waiting to speak to Professor Piller, and I will be very, very surprised—as will his staff, as will his patients—if he is supporting this move in any way whatsoever.

For the government to say that this is a private decision by a private doctor is in theory right, but what precipitated it? That is the question. It is the lack of support from this government for an essential service, a world-class service, being delivered by world-class physicians and also being supported by excellent staff.

This is the fourth report with respect to the eating disorder unit at 4G. We had reports in 2007, 2009, 2010 and now we have 2011, and all those reports talk about a statewide eating disorder unit. But, apart from the latest report, every other report talks about keeping the eating disorder patients (who in many cases are young women) away from severely mentally ill patients, and I congratulate the government on reversing that stupid decision about putting them in Margaret Tobin.

The report talks about having a specialist eating disorder unit in the hospital, not some community placement out there. That may be possible later on, but you need a specialist eating disorder unit in the hospital, and 4G has been providing that. One of the recommendations was that the number of beds in 4G be expanded. If there are other patients in there (and I believe there are), well, move them out. Make 4G a specialist unit. Respect that and respect the Lymphoedema Assessment Clinic.

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