Western Sydney Health Services

Mrs SKINNER (North Shore) [4.21 p.m.]: Since July this year, after the release of the State budget, many nurses and doctors have spoken out about problems relating to our health system. I have been highlighting those problems for the past 4½ years. Those health professionals have confirmed Coalition claims that the root of the problems in our health system is financial mismanagement on the part of the Carr Government. With the Carr Government’s budget providing no additional funding for health in the coming year, the problems about which these doctors have talked will get even worse. Indeed, that is proving to be the case.

After a great deal of media attention in the early winter months, the Minister for Health, the
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Hon. Craig Knowles, eventually made a commitment to maintain front-line hospital services. He was speaking specifically after an outcry in relation to services in western Sydney hospitals. He announced at the time that $42 million, which was to be found through administrative savings, would be injected into front-line health services. If $42 million has been shifted from administration to clinical services, it has done nothing to improve services in our hospitals.

I am intrigued as to how the Minister expects any of us to believe that $42 million has been shifted from administration to clinical services when he is so secretive about everything to do with funding in our hospitals. As I have said, there has been no improvement to the services in our hospitals. In fact, hospitals are still having to look at measures to cut back on their expenditure because there has been no growth in real terms in the health budget this year. For example, more patients are waiting longer for elective surgery. People are waiting longer to get into emergency departments and for other allied health services such as dental care and physiotherapy. I notice that the honourable member for Heathcote laughed at my reference to dental care.

Mr McManus: It is a Federal matter.

Mrs SKINNER: The State Coalition made a commitment to increase funding for dental health by $32 million prior to the election. The Carr Government snubbed its nose at the 120,000 people in this State who are waiting for dental care. The Government has a responsibility to patients in western Sydney and throughout the State and it has let them down. The situation is much worse at Westmead Hospital, which is a good example of the arrogance and hypocrisy of the Government. In July one doctor at Westmead referred to that hospital as being held together with string, chewing gum, band-aids and baling wire. From conversations I have had with that doctor and other senior doctors at the hospital I now understand that, despite the Minister’s commitment that there will be no loss of front-line services, Westmead will have 70 fewer beds than it did a few months ago, that is, at the time of the State election.

In addition, there are now plans to close the 16-bed adolescent ward at Westmead Hospital, a world-class facility that treats young people with conditions such as anorexia. The closure of that ward, which has been built up over 16 years, will affect young people right across New South Wales who suffer from anorexia. It is the only specialist unit of its kind in a public facility. At the moment it treats 800 in-patients, plus an additional 120 out-patients each month. The Health Department claims that the ward will be closed only temporarily while it is being refurbished. However, specialists in the ward have told me that the unit will not be reopened. In 1996 the former Minister for Health, Andrew Refshauge, stated in this House:

Eating disorders kill and are on the rise. There are approximately 400 new cases of anorexia per year in New South Wales and as many as 7,500 sufferers at one time.

He went on to say:

There are now specialist units in our major hospitals given over to the treatment of teenagers determined to starve or binge themselves to death.

The closure of this ward makes a mockery of the Carr Government’s commitment to young people who suffer from eating disorders. There are other planned closures of adolescent wards. Doctors at Nepean Hospital have told me that the adolescent ward and the birthing unit proposed for the new building to be opened by the Minister - dare I say with great fanfare - later this year will not proceed. So adolescents and young people in Westmead are being let down by the Government. The facility to be included in the new building for mothers and children will now not proceed. Australian Labor Party candidates who promised those services during the election campaign should be calling on the Minister for Health to ensure that the promised services are delivered.

Other issues at Nepean Hospital include the lack of an increase in recurrent funding to open the new hospital building, the 26 additional beds promised will not open, the 23 beds which are currently closed due to renovations will not reopen, the $1 million promised for drug and alcohol treatment has not resulted in the opening of any new beds, and the hospital has received less than half of the $1 million promised for the intensive care unit. Honourable members will remember a short time ago the outcry of nurses at the New Children’s Hospital, which is also serving the west, because of plans by that hospital to close the babies and toddlers wards. That closure was forestalled. There is a three-month moratorium on plans to close that facility after nurses threatened to take industrial action. The General Secretary of the Nurses Association, Sandra Moait, is quoted in the Daily Telegraph on 13 September as saying that the nurses were stunned when they learned of the proposal. She is also reported as saying that relocating those beds to other wards would severely downgrade the care given to toddlers and babies.

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That is exactly what will happen when the adolescent ward at Westmead is closed. The closure represents a downgrading of services to people who need that specialist care. There has been a great deal of local concern about the Government’s future plans for Auburn hospital. The Western Integrated Network Strategy revealed five proposals for Auburn hospital. Three of the options were to close the hospital altogether. All five options recommended closing the emergency department and downgrading the hospital to the performance of day surgery only. The Health Department has denied my freedom of information requests to access minutes relating to the discussion of these issues. The Minister says that the hospital will not close. I want an assurance from the Minister that the hospital will not be downgraded and that none of the services that it currently provides to the local community will be lost.

Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital is another local facility serving western Sydney. I am deeply concerned about the recent announcement that Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital is being forced to close a 28-bed ward because of budget constraints. Slashing bed numbers means that hospital waiting lists will continue to increase and more pressure will be placed on an already overcrowded emergency department. The Minister’s response to a question about plans to cut hospital bed numbers was that the closure of beds at any hospital is good bed management. If that is what the Minister thinks, he should explain to all the people on hospital waiting lists what he is intending do for them. He must explain what his idea of good bed management means to the 48,000 people who are currently waiting for elective surgery in our hospitals.

Waiting lists for elective surgery across the State have increased by nearly 3,500 in the three months since the Hon. Craig Knowles became the Minister for Health. The increases are particularly high for western Sydney hospitals. For example, the number of people waiting for surgery at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital increased from 1,167 in March 1999 to 1,342 in June 1999, an increase of 175 patients, and the number of people waiting for surgery at Auburn increased from 452 patients in March 1999 to 760 in June 1999. In Macarthur - the Camden and Campbelltown area - the numbers have increased from 1,220 to 1,350; at Westmead, from 1,894 to 2,042; at Nepean, from 1,922 to 2,057; at Liverpool, from 1,549 to 1,715; and at the New Children’s Hospital, from 1,508 to 1,576.

We do not know how many more people have been forced onto waiting lists since June because the Minister has failed to release those figures. However, going on past performances those figures will not be made public until the day before I am due to get them under freedom of information provisions, and I predict confidently that they will not be an improvement. The Minister can no longer bury his head in the sand and hope that the announcement of reviews, committees and inquiries will divert public scrutiny from the impact of the cuts he is forcing on hospitals. It is time for the Minister to stop playing politics and to start acting like a real health Minister and fix the hospital crisis in the State, particularly for the population growth areas like western Sydney.

Mr McMANUS (Heathcote - Parliamentary Secretary) [4.30 p.m.]: It is obvious the Opposition has failed dismally in the bush because suddenly it once again targets western Sydney. If one examines the results of the last election, it is obvious why the Labor Party is in government: the people of western Sydney believe in the Government and do not accept the Opposition’s lies. Let me tell the House the truth of the matter. Funding for health in western Sydney for 1999-2000 is in excess of $1.1 billion. That is an increase of 46 per cent since 1994-95. In this financial year almost $100 million has been allocated for capital works in western Sydney, including facilities at Camden, Campbelltown, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Penrith and Westmead.

That is despite the Federal Government’s cuts, which have meant a direct loss of more than $500 million to the New South Wales health system. The shadow minister mentioned that that includes the abolition of funding for the Commonwealth dental program. It also includes an effective cut of $59 million in funding for western Sydney as a result of the Federal Government’s failure to compensate the States for the decline in private health insurance rates. Funding for new and upgraded hospitals, specialised cancer services, women’s health and other services is making it easier for people from western Sydney to obtain health care without having to travel long distances. Under the Carr Labor Government western Sydney health services will continue to expand to keep up with the population growth of the area, which will be half of the total population of Sydney in future decades.

Today the number of patients being treated has increased by 30,000 per annum over the number treated under the previous Coalition Government. Nepean Hospital now has specialised cancer units, palliative care is available at Mount Druitt hospital, and cardiac surgery is performed at Liverpool Hospital. We have had a major investment in Liverpool and Nepean hospitals, overseen the transfer of the New Children’s Hospital to Westmead
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and commenced the redevelopment of Mount Druitt and Blacktown hospitals. The Government has provided record funding of more than $1 billion per annum for hospital and health facilities and services across western Sydney.

Westmead Hospital admits more than 58,000 patients each here. It now receives 22 per cent more in funding than was provided by the previous Coalition Government. We have increased the funding by 22 per cent over that provided by the same members who are screaming at us. A refurbished emergency department and a second cardiac catheter laboratory give patients access to better and faster treatment locally. The Carr Labor Government installed a new linear accelerator at Westmead. The New Children’s Hospital, which moved from Camperdown to Westmead now receives $100 million in funding per annum. The hospital treats more than 28,000 children each year in Sydney’s west rather than requiring them to travel to Sydney for treatment.

The New Children’s Hospital also employs 11 per cent more staff and receives 54 per cent more in funding under the Carr Labor Government compared to the previous Coalition Government. The Kidsnet telephone service at Westmead Hospital helps parents with sick children assess what medical care or services are needed for their children. The new facilities are providing services such as liver transplant and facial reconstruction surgery, which were previously unavailable.

Ms Seaton: How do they rate in Bulli?

Mr McMANUS: I would like to talk to you about your area. You are a disgrace to the people in your region. I have had a look at the local hospital. You are a disgrace and the members before you were also a disgrace. Cardiothoracic surgery is available for the first time in south-west Sydney following a major upgrade of Liverpool Hospital. A total of 600 patients have now been treated in Sydney’s west - close to their homes, near family and friends - rather than having to travel to Sydney for surgery.

Under the Carr Labor Government Liverpool Hospital admits an extra 12,000 patients each year, an increase of 37 per cent. It employs more staff, an increase of 43 per cent, and it receives more funding, an increase of 66 per cent, compared to the previous Coalition Government. There is a pattern in all of this compared to the way things were under the Coalition. The honourable member for North Shore behaved disgracefully the last time we met face to face in a debate and she is a disgrace now. A second linear accelerator was commissioned for Liverpool Hospital in 1995 and now provides improved cancer care for patients of Sydney’s south-west. Liverpool’s Cancer Therapy Centre provides comprehensive services in specialised oncology, breast cancer, lymphoma and gynaecological cancer. Nepean Hospital, which has been mentioned earlier, has been redeveloped into a major referral and teaching hospital under Labor.

Mrs Skinner: By the Coalition.

Mr McMANUS: The Coalition has not been in power for some time. How can the Coalition take credit for that? The Coalition has not been here. The people do not want the Coalition in New South Wales. Under Labor, Nepean Hospital admits nearly 9,000 extra patients each year, an increase of 36 per cent. It employs more staff, an increase of 35 per cent, and it receives more funding, an increase of 89 per cent, compared with the state of affairs under the Coalition Government. Once again I am becoming repetitious but these are the facts. The new four-storey $40 million building to provide health services to women and children at Nepean Hospital is almost complete and will provide neonatal intensive care services, a birthing centre and new wards.

The new Cancer Care Centre at Nepean Hospital was built at a cost of $11 million and provides comprehensive cancer care, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and palliative care services. More than 1,200 cancer patients will receive care close to their homes, near their families and friends in Sydney’s west rather than having to travel once again to Sydney for surgery, as they had to under the administration of the people on the other side of the House. Other new services at Nepean Hospital include increased surgery, improved cardiac and reproductive health services, improved diagnostics and oncology, a new pain management clinic and a $1.3 million CT scanner to help deliver faster diagnoses of illnesses and injuries.

The new $3.3 million detoxification unit at Fairfield Hospital is being built to treat drug users as part of the Carr Labor Government’s commitment to tackling the drug problem. The $7 million upgrade of the Blue Mountains hospital is providing better care for local residents with its new accident and emergency unit, operating theatre, ambulatory care centre and relocated pathology unit. The expansion of services in the Macarthur network has commenced with the commitment of $85 million for the redevelopment and refurbishment of Campbelltown and Camden hospitals, along with additional community health facilities.

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The redevelopment of the Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals into state-of-the-art health facilities has begun at a cost of $96 million. Wards have been upgraded and a new community health centre and palliative care unit have been built at Mount Druitt hospital. I have to say that this is the most ridiculous matter of public importance I have heard of since I have been in this place! The old Bankstown Hospital has been replaced with a new $77 million hospital that features state-of-the-art technology and ultra-modern design to provide more and better services to the people of the area. Auburn hospital has expanded services in ambulatory care and women’s health, and has developed better services to target its ethnically diverse local community.

Mrs Skinner: Who wrote this?

Mr McMANUS: The honourable member for North Shore does not like it but she is going to hear it. Four new community health centres costing $7 million have opened at Penrith, Cranebrook, Springwood and St Clair, providing health education and prevention, women’s health services, drug and alcohol counselling, and nursing and allied services. The new Wollondilly Community Health Centre at Tahmoor has been completed. How is the Southern Highlands electorate going now? Since 1995 there has been good news from the Carr Government for drug and alcohol services in western Sydney. The Ted Noffs Foundation was awarded the tender for the construction of a 12-bed Youth Drug Rehabilitation Centre worth $900,000.

Ms Seaton: There is no dentist in Bowral.

Mr McMANUS: I was down at Bowral. I opened the community health centre.

Ms Seaton: There is no dentist.

Mr McMANUS: Bowral had a dentist when I was there. What have you done with him? You must be a lousy member of Parliament if you cannot control the dentist in your region. We are not completely finished in Bowral. We have plans. The Government is delivering on the commitments it made in the election campaign and it is putting its plans into action. The stage two development of Nepean Hospital and the opening of the new four-storey, $40 million building to provide women’s and children’s health services and neonatal intensive care services -

Mrs Skinner: It doesn’t have a birthing centre.

Mr McMANUS: A birthing centre and new wards for the Penrith area are on time for opening in January.

Mrs Skinner: No birthing centre. You have been misled.

Mr McMANUS: The Government is completing the $85 million redevelopment and refurbishment of Campbelltown and Camden hospitals as part of the Carr Labor Government’s MacArthur health network. That plan will allow for a range of improvements, including an additional 11,500 admissions per year. [Time expired.]

Ms SEATON (Southern Highlands) [4.40 pm]: Health services in western Sydney are at crisis point. They are impacting adversely on people in my electorate and in south-west Sydney. The honourable member for Heathcote spoke about the Tahmoor Medical Centre, which is virtually empty. I want a specialist medical centre that will be a magnet for other general practitioners and will stop the exodus of people from my area to access medical services elsewhere. At that point there are very slim pickings. Very often my constituents cannot find those services when they need them.

The honourable member for Heathcote spoke about the much-needed Bowral community centre. But we still have no senior dentist after months of waiting, after the health service has tried for months to attract someone to a system that most dentists know pays poorly and, therefore, has no incentive to join it. There is a great deal of evidence in my electorate this week of the abject failure of the Government, and that evidence comes in the wake of other examples. A huge proportion of Southern Highlands residents have to travel out of the area for treatment, and still they cannot get it. In the public health system we lack local ophthalmology, renal services, cancer services and geriatric services.

Recently a mother from Wollondilly waited 11 hours in Campbelltown Hospital with her daughter to be told that her daughter needed to change her diet. When another doctor looked at the child she was listed for surgery for a serious condition. This week there was another major breakdown in the health services on which those in my area rely. In detailing this example I will not mention the names of those concerned because of the sensitivity of the situation, and I am sure honourable members will respect that. The incident involves a family in a great deal of distress. A woman with a severe alcohol dependency problem appeared in a Local Court in my area. She was declared an inebriate and
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ordered by the magistrate to spend three months at the Cumberland Hospital at Westmead.

Mrs Skinner: Court ordered.

Ms SEATON: Absolutely. It was a court-ordered admission. The woman’s family, upon contacting the hospital, was told that she was out of area and therefore the admission would not be accepted. There is nowhere else she could have gone. There is no facility in my area to help people with drug and alcohol problems. She had no choice but to go out of area, but when she went to Cumberland Hospital she was told that she could not be accepted because she was out of area. It is an absolute disgrace. The family was put under a great deal of stress and the woman experienced a further episode of distress. An officer of the court also contacted Westmead Hospital, but without success.

Not even the court could persuade the hospital to take her. The family also contacted Rozelle Hospital, the Chisholm Ross Hospital at Goulburn and Waratah House at Campbelltown. These institutions would not accept the admission. The family also contacted a detoxification facility at Fairfield, which refused the admission because it was not voluntary. There are no facilities in the Southern Highlands. This woman had no choice but to go out of area. My office staff - and I acknowledge the help they gave the family and I thank them for it - spent a good deal of yesterday afternoon on the phone on behalf of this family trying to find a place for this woman.

In the meantime the woman concerned got herself into an even more desperate situation. Apparently she used some more alcohol to try to help her cope with the situation. The family was in absolutely desperate straits. It had gone through the drama of a court appearance and now it was going through the drama of having to fight to get the woman into a western Sydney health facility, as had been ordered by the court. Eventually we had a breakthrough. But if that family had not had the presence of mind to contact my office what would have happened? It would have been another statistic, another example of unmet need. Who knows what would have happened to the woman concerned.

What would have happened if my staff had not put an entire afternoon into chasing around to find her a place to meet her needs. We all heard the Premier talk in this place during the Drug Summit about detoxification facilities, rehabilitation and residential detoxification facilities. The Premier has done nothing. He has not committed to treble the funding for detoxification facilities that everyone who attended the Drug Summit accepted. He has not tripled the budget. This situation is not acceptable. I will not tolerate it on behalf of residents in my electorate.

Mrs SKINNER (North Shore) [4.45 p.m.], in reply: I thank my colleague the honourable member for Southern Highlands for providing the human face of the lack of resources in our health system. Yesterday I spoke with her at length about the effort her staff had put into trying to find a bed for the woman to whom she referred. I am surprised that my colleagues on the opposite side of the Chamber would laugh at the plight of a woman who has been ordered by the court to receive hospital attention, but the hospital refuses to deliver it.

It is extraordinary that members of this House, regardless of their political persuasion, would think it is acceptable for a hospital not to honour a court order directing that a patient in desperate need of treatment be admitted. Nothing that has been said by the honourable for Heathcote changes my view that health services in western Sydney are in dire straits. I was astonished to hear the honourable member for Heathcote claim that this was not a matter of public importance. The topic of the debate is health services in western Sydney, and he does not think it should be debated.

Mr McManus: You flew over it. You have never been there.

Mrs SKINNER: I can assure the honourable member for Heathcote that about two months ago I visited Westmead Hospital three times in about three weeks. I was taken on a full tour of the hospital.

Mr McManus: It’s about time you got there. It has taken you seven years.

Mrs SKINNER: I helped establish the adolescent health facility in the western Sydney area, and I spoke to workers from the facility today. They thanked me very much for the interest the Coalition has shown.

Mr McManus: Why didn’t you put your money into it when you had the chance?

Mrs SKINNER: In fact, we established the adolescent health research unit in western Sydney.

Mr McManus: You ran the place down.

Mrs SKINNER: You forget that I have a long history in the delivery of health services for young people. If the honourable member for
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Heathcote were to look closely at the speech notes provided by the Minister he would realise that the wool is being pulled over his eyes. He should look, for example, at his comments about the birthing centre at Nepean. If the honourable member had been to Nepean Hospital on numerous occasions, as I have -

Mr McManus: I’ve been there. Last week I was there.

Mrs SKINNER: Was the honourable member in the birthing centre?

Mr McManus: I was at Westmead last week.

Mrs SKINNER: I can assure the honourable member that there is are no such thing as the birthing centre. It has been dropped from the plans because the Government has failed to provide recurrent resources to enable it to open. All he need do is speak to the doctors at Nepean Hospital who run the facility. There is no such thing as a birthing centre for Nepean now. The plans had to be dropped because there is not enough recurrent funding. When honourable members come into this place with speeches prepared for somebody else I recommend that they check the validity of their information to save embarrassment. It is quite simple: I will send a copy of all the speeches on this topic made in this Chamber to doctors in the west and ask them to comment on the veracity of what has been said.

The other issue I wish to raise is the Coalition’s commitment to health services in western Sydney. If the Minister thinks for one minute that the people of New South Wales will now accept a revised version of history that suggests that the Carr Government built the new Children’s Hospital at Westmead he is sadly mistaken. Everyone knows that was an initiative of the former Coalition Government, as was the upgrading of Nepean Hospital to tertiary level and the rebuilding of Liverpool Hospital, which opened shortly after the change of government. However, there was a delay because doctors at that hospital threatened industrial action because the Carr Government refused to provide additional recurrent funding to enable any new services. I am afraid this will be the fate also of the new facility at Nepean. Not only will there be fewer resources but the provisions that were part of the new mothers and children wing at Nepean Hospital will not now be available.

Mr McManus: Tell us about your policies and your commitments.

Mrs SKINNER: I would be delighted to tell you about my policy but, better still, you could read about it on the Internet. It is still there, along with most of the third party endorsements. I am very happy to give you a copy of them.

Mr McManus: Third party endorsements!

Mrs SKINNER: Yes, organisations such as the Cancer Council, the Heart Foundation and the AIDS Council have endorsed my policy. One of the Coalition’s policies was to increase recurrent funding to western Sydney by $100 million each and every year. That is what western Sydney hospitals need. The Minister should put his money where his mouth is and give a commitment to the people of the west.

Discussion concluded.