Northern Beaches Health Services

Mr ROB STOKES (Pittwater) [1.50 p.m.]: I again demand—many of my colleagues on the northern beaches have demanded—answers to the future of health services on the northern beaches. Ever since this Government assumed office 13 long years ago there has been continuing uncertainty over the future of two local community-based hospitals on the northern beaches. We have endured long, passionate and hotly fought debates about the future of health services on the northern beaches, the need for two hospitals, the location of the two hospitals, and the mix of services to be provided at those two hospitals. All the while there has been a constant, gradual and alarming decline in the facilities and infrastructure available at existing hospitals.

Even more insidiously and significantly, there has been an ongoing erosion of public confidence in our health system. Quite simply, it is as though the Government has sought to create a situation where people will resign themselves to a substandard health system because of uncertainty, constant undelivered promises by a succession of health Ministers, and a complete vacuum of leadership or vision from the Government. A lack of leadership on this issue has undermined certainty and increased confusion and resentment among people on the northern beaches. Let me provide some examples. Quite simply, this Government does not keep its promises. On 30 March 2006 former Premier Morris Iemma announced:

There will be a new high level acute hospital at Frenchs Forest ... critical care, emergency and intensive care, maternity, paediatric services. Mona Vale hospital will ... provide complementary services.

Last year, in answer to a question asked by my colleague the member for Davidson, it was noted that the planning process for the hospitals should be completed in the second half of 2007, with construction expected to start after that, taking at least three years to complete. It was reported that the hospital would be functional by 2010. In April 2008 the member for Miranda stated that the new hospital that would be built at Frenchs Forest. He said:

The new hospital is a major component of the $500 million northern beaches strategy and on completion will deliver state-of-the-art facilities and services to the northern beaches community.

He also said that it was expected that the project definition plan would be completed by mid-2008. Despite all these promises and despite two meetings with former health Minister Reba Meagher, the clinical services plan has not been released, there is no budget, and there is no timetable to show when our new hospital will be built and when the existing hospital at Mona Vale will be upgraded to its complementary role. None of that has happened. Earlier this week the Treasurer, in his mini-budget, said in suitably vague and bureaucratic terms:

To accommodate these priorities within existing budget limits, some planned capital projects may be deferred. Final decisions on project deferrals will be subject to discussions with the Commonwealth regarding availability of national infrastructure funds for health-related projects.

People on the northern beaches simply do not know whether they can believe this Government. We have had too many promises and too many cries of wolf. My community does not believe the promises that this Government makes. I call on the Government to deliver on its promises. Hope Healthcare recently opened the Cora Adcock Palliative Care Day facility at Mona Vale hospital to provide treatment and support for terminally ill patients. Dr Andrew Broadbent, the palliative care director, is keen to expand palliative care services at Mona Vale, and negotiations have been underway with NSW Health to enable the expansion of the current palliative care cottage. Despite a meeting that I facilitated in June this year, nothing has occurred. There is no lease and no draft heads of agreement. Mona Vale hospital auxiliary is ready and willing to allocate money to pay for these new facilities, but NSW Health will not allow us to get on with providing services and expanding facilities.

Raymond Close Health Inc. provides software for X-ray machines for Gosford and Wyong hospitals. Because of the mismanagement of our health system he is still chasing an invoice for $35,000 that he submitted in July this year. These sorts of uncertainties are emblematic of the disarray in our health system. It cannot continue. We have incredible staff at our northern beaches hospitals, for example, Anthony Dombkins, Director of Nursing; Karen Draddy, Nursing Unit Manager, Maternity; and Michael Wu, Head of Emergency at Mona Vale hospital. We have wonderful staff and wonderful community people helping our hospitals. The Government must deliver on its commitments.