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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-16 Daily Xml
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LYELL MCEWIN RENAL DIALYSIS UNIT

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:14): Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. You might not say that when I have finished. I congratulate the member for Davenport on a fine speech today in the house. Our state really is crawling to a halt and the government, as he said, is tired and totally dysfunctional.

I have raised the matter of dialysis in this place before and I wanted to have that service available in the Barossa Valley and/or even Gawler (and the member for Gawler is sitting here) but to no avail. Most of these unfortunate people have to go to the Lyell McEwin Hospital for treatment. The patients receiving dialysis treatment at the Lyell McEwin Renal Dialysis Unit have been without any entertainment for six months following the removal of analogue TVs on 2 April this year. This matter was raised with me in June, by a constituent, Mrs Christine Diotti, whose husband receives dialysis treatment three times a week at the unit.

A lot of my constituents, particularly the Barossa ones, access dialysis treatment at the Lyell McEwin as it is the closest service available, despite my lobbying for dialysis to be available in the Barossa, or even Gawler as I said, but no action has been forthcoming. I see this situation as being totally unacceptable, and as soon as I became aware of the lack of TV entertainment for patients, I contacted the Minister for Health urging him to have the situation rectified as soon as possible. Surely a basic digital TV costing between $500 and $900, with a basic antenna, or a set-top box that could be put on top of the old TV, costing $29 to $30, would have been easy. I ask the question, sir, should I donate one or should I donate even two myself? It is ridiculous.

In correspondence dated 19 August, I was informed by the minister that the necessary works would be finished and the patient's bedside monitors working within the next month, but to date no action has occurred. On average, the patients attending the dialysis unit are there for about four or five hours to receive their treatment, just looking at a wall. The unit services approximately 25 patients a day. It is ridiculous that there have been no televisions available to the patients since early April to keep them entertained while they receive the dialysis treatment needed to keep them alive.

I ask the minister what he suggests they do? Some of them sleep, some sit there totally bored, and tensions have arisen between patients because there is nothing to do. My constituent Mrs Diotti has said she was discouraged from bringing in a small TV set, 'because of all the electronics that are within the ceiling and within all the dialysis machines.' They cannot even sit there twiddling their thumbs. Each patient is mildly immobilised and connected to the dialysis machine; they should not move, they have needles and lines in their arms and they need to stay still throughout their treatment.

I contacted the minister again on 19 September requesting that the process to install the new digital television sets be fast tracked to ensure that this unacceptable situation is rectified as a matter of urgency but, to date, I have not received a response. I then read in today's edition of The Bunyip newspaper—and the minister is here—the following:

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Margot Mains said new entertainment systems in the renal dialysis unit are expected to be available within three weeks.

She is reported in the paper. She goes on to say:

The delayed installation of the new patient bedside monitors was due to engineering issues in the unit.

Not good enough. Yes Minister stuff. Ridiculous. As I have previously stated, the minister in his correspondence to me dated 19 August stated that:

It is expected that the works will be finished and the patient bedside monitors working within the next month.

This has not happened and now we are told it will still be another three weeks. We are now in mid-October, the analogues were removed in April, and it has taken six months and still the TV units have not been installed. It is totally unacceptable that people who are receiving life-maintaining treatment are unable to keep themselves entertained by a television. Every waiting room in Adelaide has a TV set. Why not the people who have nothing to do but have treatment and look at the wall?

As the minister's silence on this issue shows, Labor lacks the basic integrity to remedy even relatively straightforward matters such as this. South Australians deserve better and, as the member for Davenport has just said, this really indicates how this government is totally uncaring, and is tired and dysfunctional.

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