Lismore Electorate Therapy Services
Page: 6802
Mr GEORGE (Lismore) [6.37 p.m.]: I record my concerns about therapy services provided by the Northern Rivers Area Health Service, especially in the Lismore electorate. Late last year parents, organisations such as the Summerland Early Intervention Program Inc., and paediatricians contacted my office to highlight the cutbacks, which caused loss of children's services, including speech therapy. Following these complaints I made representations to the Minister for Health. The Parliamentary Secretary responded:
I understand these services are currently not distributed equitably and the Area is trying [to] address this situation by allocating resources more fairly across the entire Health Service. While the NRAHS may need to reduce services in one area, services in other areas have increased.
Following further investigation I found this information to be either incorrect or ambiguous. While the intention was to distribute funds and services more equitably, I found that money was taken from speech therapy and given to other areas of health and not spread across the entire Northern Rivers Area Health Service to help speech therapy. Since the receipt of this reply, Dr Chris Ingall— representing paediatricians, Therese Fuhmann and Miriam O'Grady—representing early intervention centres, and I met with the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Rivers Area Health Service, Mrs Kyra Kelly, to seek support in having this issue addressed with proper funding.
I must place on record that Ms Kelly has been supportive of and sympathetic to our needs since having the problems explained to her. These people have become involved mainly because of their increasing frustration in trying to find therapy services for the children who come through their door. Over the past few years they have found it increasingly difficult to have children even assessed for the need of therapy, let alone actually receive a block of therapy as well. One might ask why children need early intervention services. When therapists from different disciplines and teachers are working together under one roof, the needs of families and their children who have multiple problems can be most efficiently and easily met. When therapists are in diverse locations families must work much harder to make and keep appointments.
To put the matter into proper perspective, if a three-year-old boy had a speech, language or socialisation problem—probably one of the more common scenarios faced by early intervention teams—in 1996 he would have been assessed within a month and received ongoing speech therapy, both in a group and/or individually, for the length of time he needed it. Currently, the boy would be waiting for three months for assessment and if he was seen in the latter half of the calendar year there would be no therapy available to him. Once the child reached the age of five there would be no speech therapy available at all. The other specialties of occupational therapy—physiotherapy and psychology—are similarly stretched. Against a background of rising numbers, there have been cuts in services over the past few years, and this has led to the present critical situation. I have supporting details that I will give to the Parliamentary Secretary to pass on to the Minister. Those statistics reinforce the need for additional funding. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to seek the Minister's support to achieve a suitable result.
Mr MARKHAM (Wollongong—Parliamentary Secretary) [6.42 p.m.]: I listened to the honourable member for Lismore's comments about a matter that is no doubt of concern to him and his constituents. I will ensure that I draw the Minister for Health's attention to the concerns raised by the honourable member.