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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-10-14 Daily Xml
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Modbury Hospital

The Hon. S.G. WADE (15:46): I rise today to speak about cuts to services at the Modbury Hospital under the government's Transforming Health plan. Last week, the government announced that it was walking away from its plan to build a dedicated elective eye centre at Modbury. Back in March, the government told residents of the north-eastern suburbs that in future, if they needed to have a cataract removed, laser corrections or glaucoma treatment, they would 'be able to get it locally at Modbury Hospital'. Eight months later, the government says that they have consulted with eye doctors and the idea will not work. Eight months later, there will be no eye hospital at Modbury, but the government does not know where the dedicated eye centre will be built.

This is just the latest backflip which demonstrates that the Transforming Health plan is ill conceived and poorly consulted. Last week, the government also announced that it plans to transfer complex and emergency surgery, and orthopaedic and cardiology services from Modbury Hospital to the Lyell McEwin. These decisions will reduce Modbury's emergency department to the level of an ambulance transfer station.

On this morning's radio, Dr Scott Watkin, the head of surgery at Modbury Hospital, raised concerns about the government's health plan. He said that, if the government pushes ahead with its plan, a senior surgeon at Modbury Hospital 'will be no better than a first aider' who will 'turn up and be frustrated by the inability to do anything other than put pressure on the bleeding' and who will have to put the patient 'in an ambulance and send them off to a team in another hospital'. The receiving team, Dr Watkin said, will have 'never been in that person's wound, they don't know what the potential problem might be and they [will] have to start from scratch'. Dr Watkin also revealed that, under the government's Transforming Health plan:

…there will be no emergency surgery at Modbury…not only during office hours but after hours, if you have appendicitis you need to go elsewhere, if you have an abscess to drain you [will] need to go elsewhere.

This is not what people living in the suburbs surrounding Modbury Hospital have been promised and what they have been led to believe would be delivered over the last few months. This is not what the members for Florey and Newland have been telling them through leaflets and letters, reassuring residents that the broad range of services currently provided at Modbury will be maintained.

I am very concerned about the long-term viability of the Modbury Hospital. At present, the Modbury emergency department handles over 35,000 presentations a year. Under Labor's plan, only day cases will be admitted to Modbury. Most other surgical cases will be transferred or diverted. It has been put to me that only about a third of Modbury's current emergency department load would meet the day case criteria. While Modbury might be receiving 1,800 more elective procedures and scopes, it looks like losing around 12,000 emergency surgical procedures.

Emergency physicians rely on specialist support from beyond the ED to be able to undertake diagnosis and treatment. If Modbury Hospital does not provide a range of general surgical services, the emergency department may well not have the critical back-up that emergency departments require to operate.

The Royal College of Surgeons has also warned that Transforming Health is a threat to two trainee surgical placements at Modbury Hospital. Trainees are crucial to supporting quality health services, and they are also crucial for ensuring that there is an adequate flow of new surgical specialists entering our health system in the future.

As we have seen from the Repatriation General Hospital campaign, the government is not afraid to close down hospitals, even in the face of an unprecedented public outcry. The threat to the viability of the Modbury Hospital is real. I would remind the people of the north-east of an article by The Advertiser's Brad Crouch in June 2014. He said:

While upgrades on three other hospitals also have been suspended, Modbury appears to be the most likely candidate for closure if the government decides on a big ticket action to cover the gap. Senior government sources said that it was the worst case scenario but it may be a better option than trying to plug the huge gap with multiple small measures.

I implore the government to back down from its Transforming Health plan and to reverse its decision to cut specialist services from Modbury Hospital. I fear that its cost-cutting plans will inevitably reduce access to health services and may well cripple the future of the Modbury Hospital.

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