Hospital Waiting Lists
Page: 174
Mr O’FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [11.28 a.m.]: I move:
That this House condemns the Government for post-election cutbacks and reductions in surgery at the State's public hospitals despite pre-election promises to boost funding to reduce surgery waiting lists, especially in rural and regional New South Wales.
There is more than an echo of the previous motion in this motion. My motion refers to the cynicism, expediency and lengths to which Labor would go in seeking to win the last election. I note the presence in the House of the new Minister for Health. He, of course, like the new Minister for Transport Services, has to clean up the mess created by his predecessor. That is simply not good enough. It is not good enough for either the current Minister for Health or the current Minister for Transport Services to argue as new Ministers of the third Carr Ministry that these issues do not relate to them and the administration of the Carr Government.
The reality is that the people who misled New South Wales in relation to hospital waiting lists and rail services across this State are still significant members of the Carr Government. They are still part of the same administration, and are prepared to use the same tactics and adopt the same approach to governance in New South Wales. That has to end. Playing politics with people's health has to end. When it comes to essential health services in this State, the cover-ups, deceit, lies and deception have to end. The practice of new Ministers trying to blame the bureaucrats and their former colleagues has to end. When it comes to health services in New South Wales, it should be beyond politics that resources have to be provided at the time and place that the people require them.
Throughout the financial year 2002-03 the former Minister for Health toured the State and talked about the injection of funds into the State's public hospital system to reduce waiting lists. Further, during the election campaign the Government released the $7.5 million rural health plan, which we were told would help reduce waiting lists, particularly in rural and regional hospitals. That announcement was welcomed by communities across New South Wales, by doctors and others associated with the State's hospitals, and by Independent members in this Chamber. And so it ought to have been, because the surgery waiting times incurred by people who live outside of metropolitan Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong are significantly higher than those incurred by people who live in your home town, Mr Speaker, or in my electorate.
Within two days of the conclusion of the State election campaign, surgery times in public hospital theatres across the State were wound back. This was not a figment of the Coalition's imagination, nor that of doctors. These cutbacks, which are to last at least to the end of this financial year, were detailed in memoranda distributed to public hospitals in country and metropolitan New South Wales. I have the memo from St George Hospital and I have seen the memos from Lismore Base Hospital and the New England Area Health Service. Within 48 hours of the conclusion of the State election campaign—within two days of the Australian Labor Party being returned to office—the much sought-after extra resources to reduce surgery waiting lists in country New South Wales and metropolitan hospitals were being cut back. In the Government's normal deceptive and deceitful way, it blamed the cuts on the "traditional Easter shutdown".
Mr Black: The man bulldozed two of my railway stations.
Mr O’FARRELL: All I have to say to the honourable member for Murray-Darling is God forbid if anyone had been injured because under this Government they would have had to wait longer for surgery. I know that the honourable member for Murray-Darling will not laugh about hospital waiting lists in country areas. He understands the significance of the problem. I am sure that he, allegedly a Country Labor member, argued for the sort of program that the former Minister for Health promised last year and during the election campaign would produce additional funds to reduce surgery waiting lists in the State's public hospitals. I am sure that he and I have no disagreement on that issue. The issue he must determine today is whether he supports what occurred immediately after the State election campaign when suddenly theatre and surgery times were reduced, with one impact: an increase in waiting lists again across regional New South Wales.
[Interruption]
The honourable member for Murray-Darling says that he does not agree with what occurred after the election campaign. I look forward to the honourable member joining this side of the Chamber when we vote on the motion. It is all very well for the current Minister for Health to say it is the fault of the bureaucrats and to try to ensure that he is not accountable for the decision. But the Minister has failed to resolve the issue. The Minister has failed to explain how additional funding of $900,000 for the New England Area Health Service—which was announced by former Minister Knowles in December, as he stood beside the honourable member for Northern Tablelands, the local Independent member who Labor was keen to be returned to this place—had suddenly disappeared two days after the State election campaign.
The Minister for Health has failed to explain how funding of $1.5 million for the Northern Rivers Area Health Service, announced again with great fanfare by the former Minister for Health during the State election campaign, has disappeared. There was no reason put forward in the memos or advanced by hospital administrators to surgeons other than the classic resources issue. How did the funding dematerialise two days after the State election campaign? If the Minister for Health can assure us today that the additional resources are being reinstated and that the decision to wind back theatre and surgery times has been overturned, with the result that hospitals will permit the same rate of theatre and surgery procedures as were booked in the lead-up to the election campaign, I will be delighted and conclude my motion now. But he will not do it.
I applaud the effort of the Minister's predecessor in providing the additional resources to reduce waiting lists, particularly in rural and regional areas, prior to the last election. However, I abhor, and the public is sick and tired of, the Government's cynicism. This Parliament ought to condemn the Government for playing politics with health issues. Once elected the Government's promises are forgotten and the resources disappear and, once again, surgery times in our public hospital system are inadequate and inappropriate. The honourable member for Lismore will speak of his first-hand experience at his local hospital and the honourable member for Cronulla will speak about the situation at metropolitan hospitals, in particular St George Hospital. This issue affects hospitals across New South Wales, not just those in country areas.
The Coalition asks the House to be honest. Either the former Minister for Health, Craig Knowles, and the Premier lied and deceived the people of New South Wales or the Minister for Health should explain why, contrary to the Government's pre-election announcements and promises of additional funding to hospitals, memos were distributed by hospital administrators about cutbacks in surgery and theatre procedure times—a matter protested by surgeons across New South Wales. If the Minister indicates that theatre and surgery procedures will be restored to what they were in the lead-up to the election campaign, I will happily support him. But he will not do that; he cannot do that without belling the cat, without revealing the deceptive tactics that this Government has engaged in, not only in this area but across all portfolios. The Minister should not start his ministerial career, as he has with hospital waiting lists, by trying to draw a red line across a corrupt, sick and tired ledger and say, "Let's start again." He is part of the third Carr Government. The people running this Government are the same people who ran the last Government. The people who sought to hide waiting lists are responsible for these surgery cutbacks. The people of New South Wales deserve better.
Mr IEMMA (Lakemba—Minister for Health) [11.38 a.m.]: I move:
That the motion be amended by leaving out all words after "That" with a view to inserting instead "this House notes the record funding allocated by the State Government to health services across the State and, in particular to rural and regional areas of New South Wales.
The Government is spending record amounts on health, with the annual budget now standing at $8.8 billion—an increase of $3.5 billion since 1995. In the same period, funding for elective surgery has consistently increased each year to the point where 188,000 people will undergo elective surgery in New South Wales public hospitals this year. That is despite increasing demands on our hospital system and emergency departments, which have resulted from factors such as the decline in bulk billing and the ageing population.
We are spending $117 million more than we spent in 1995 to perform extra medical and surgical procedures. We have focused particularly on those who have been waiting for more than 12 months. Those figures speak for themselves. The number of people waiting for more than 12 months for surgery has halved in the past year. Currently the booked waiting list is 55,324, which represents all ready-for-care booked surgery patients. The number comprises the booked surgery waiting list of 49,691 plus 5,633 patients known as list transfers. As Minister for Health I find waiting list data a source of intrigue. For example, it does not seem that the total number on a list is a meaningful indicator. My experience is that patients are far more interested in knowing when they will be operated on than how many people are waiting. To use an analogy, none of us really cares how many cars are on the freeway so long as we are travelling at a reasonable speed.
For example, in the past three years average booked surgery waiting times declined from 2.53 months in March 2001 to 2.26 months in March 2003. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported recently, "There is no argument more arid than the waiting lists and waiting times at public hospitals." To the extent that waiting lists are an indicator, things have improved. I am advised that in March 2002, 8,350 people had been waiting for more than 12 months for surgery. As at March this year that figure was 4,188. Government funding, which occupied much of the speaking time of the shadow Minister, is part of a three-year funding cycle that was introduced in 2000. Any claim that funding was allocated to boost surgery in the lead-up to the State election is wrong.
The issue in Lismore was a simple one, but apparently it remains beyond the grasp of the Opposition. The area health service failed to plan surgical activity across the 12-month period. However, the total number of surgical procedures for the 12-month period remained the same. The Northern Rivers Area Health Service, which encompasses Lismore, received $244 million, a record amount of funding and an increase of almost 12 per cent. Lismore Hospital received an additional $1 million for joint surgery, which enabled an extra 72 procedures to be performed compared to the number just two years ago. So 72 extra people will be able to move more freely and enjoy a better quality of life. The data shows a total of 221 procedures for this year compared to 149 in 2001. These figures are a direct result of increased funding allocated to the Northern Rivers Area Health Service.
Mr George: Do we get it again?
Mr IEMMA: I will come to that. The scheduling of elective surgery is a management issue for local area health services. It is important that administrators involve clinicians and doctors in planning those services, particularly surgery schedules. I have asked area health services to adopt that approach. It is one of the central issues in Lismore, and I note that the honourable member for Lismore is nodding his head. I want local area health services to work more closely with doctors to plan processes to ensure that surgical activity is scheduled sensibly across the year to minimise fluctuations in health activity. The Government has given rural and regional New South Wales extra funds for surgery. In September last year my predecessor announced the New South Wales rural health plan, which included the rural orthopaedic funding package.
Consultation for the package, which was put together in close consultation with the Australian Orthopaedic Association and local orthopaedic surgeons, began in about 2001, long before any State election. The package is worth $7.5 million to rural New South Wales this year. For the benefit of the honourable member for Lismore, it includes $5 million recurrent funding thereafter for the next five years. My recollection is that the Northern Rivers Area Health Service will receive $1.5 million from the package. That answers the honourable member's question about future funding.
Mr George: For the future?
Mr IEMMA: Yes, future funding. It is guaranteed; it is part of the package put together with orthopaedic surgeons. One of the objectives is to keep orthopaedic surgeons operating in our public hospitals in rural areas. That funding will result in an additional 540 joint replacement operations. The Greater Murray Area Health Service will receive an extra $1.2 million this year for orthopaedic surgery; the Mid North Coast Area Health Service, $1.32 million; the Northern Rivers Area Health Service, 1.5 million; the New England Area Health Service, $952,000; and Mid Western Area Health Service, $795,000. This special funding package is in addition to annual growth funding for each area health service. I think Northern Rivers received $26 million in growth funding in the total record budget of $224 million. I note that funding for the New England Area Health Service has increased by 6.2 per cent to $158.5 million in the past financial year, in addition to almost $1 million extra for orthopaedic surgery under the rural health plan.
By the end of this financial year 560 orthopaedic operations will have been performed at Armidale Hospital, compared to 352 in the previous year, an increase of 208 or 60 per cent in general orthopaedic surgery. There is no doubt that access to surgery for people in New South Wales is improving significantly through the funding packages I have just announced. No-one pretends that the health system is not under pressure, but on the whole it is performing pretty well. For the first time in living memory we have a comprehensive plan for service delivery across the State backed by record funding and three-year budgets. That will allow administrators and clinicians to plan in an environment of far greater certainty than previously. There is always room to improve our health system. We will continue to work with doctors and nurses to make sure that happens.
Mr KERR (Cronulla) [11.48 a.m.]: This is an important issue. It is interesting that the new Minister for Health is intrigued by the fuss made about waiting lists. I suggest that he talk to the Premier and the Deputy Premier. Before the 1995 election they were so concerned about waiting lists and the danger they posed to the people of the New South Wales that they said they would sign a pledge in blood to halve the waiting lists. But even on the doctored figures the waiting lists are larger than they were in 1995. As the shadow Minister said, the current figure is 58,000, compared to 43,000 in 1995. Yet we do not hear the Premier or the Deputy Premier, let alone the Minister for Health, threatening to shed blood now. One would have to be a Tracie Sonda not to realise that the health system in this State has been in crisis for the past five years. Similarly, the development application from Meriton Apartments was a public document that could have been brought before the council when she was deputy mayor. This health crisis is as obvious as the local environmental plan, the socialist document that she has now found contains mistakes.
One would think there had been a change of government, given the recent statements on a Sydney radio station. Members opposite are making it sound as though these problems have been inherited from a previous corrupt government. The Minister said in this House yesterday that he intends to refer the waiting list issue to the Independent Commission Against Corruption [ICAC] and the Auditor-General. That is amazing; it is the behaviour one would expect of a new Minister taking over from a corrupt former government. We need accurate information, and until the ICAC and the Auditor-General have provided the facts to the House it will be difficult to establish the extent of the Government's culpability. However, we do have a good idea of its scope. The speech of the Leader of the Opposition this morning deserves blanket coverage. He said the Government had more cover-ups than a doona factory. This cover-up applies to every public hospital in this State. It is an absolute disgrace!
[Interruption]
I will tell the House about cover-ups. This is the most blatant example because it affects people's lives: it is about death and suffering. Members opposite have been playing with figures. That is a disgrace. The former Minister for Health toured the State announcing enhanced funding to reduce surgery waiting lists. The honourable member for Northern Tablelands was a party to that exercise. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the Government's backflip and to see whether he will give evidence to the ICAC or speak to those involved with what has happened at the Lismore Base Hospital. Of course, the funding was welcomed by patients and families, but the Government's behaviour has been a travesty and a cruel betrayal.
Mr McBride: What is your margin?
Mr KERR: My margin increased.
Mr McBride: Is it the status quo?
Mr KERR: No, it increased nearly 4 per cent. The honourable member for Miranda moved a motion about the Government's achievements in the Sutherland shire. That is the Government's proudest achievement: it has increased my majority! Have no fear, I will not be swayed from the gravamen of the motion; it is too important. This crisis has not only exposed the Government at its most cynical but it has also demonstrated that it is prepared to do whatever it takes and to betray the most vulnerable in our community. The saving grace is that surgeons in Lismore had the courage to take on the might of the State and to tell the truth about what is happening.
Mr TORBAY (Northern Tablelands) [11.53 p.m.]: I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the motion moved by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition regarding health services. I am particularly pleased to be able to address the elective surgery lists at Armidale, given the concerns that have been raised. This motion is similar to a motion that I placed before the House yesterday. I look forward to debating that motion after having heard the Minister's contribution to this debate. Honourable members have pointed out the difficulties in their electorates. Armidale is also suffering an anomaly because, on the one hand, the health service is trying to attract specialists and specialist general practitioners and, on the other hand, it is facing reductions in elective surgery lists that will drive away many of the practitioners that it has managed to recruit. That is the main point of my contribution today. The Armidale Express contained an article highlighting the proposed cuts in elective surgery lists, and on the same page it had a photograph of a newly recruited specialist in the area.
The Minister was correct when he said that funding had not been decreased. In fact, it has been increased. That is the evidence, but the boom-and-bust scenario has a serious negative impact on attempts to attract specialists to our area. The four anaesthetists at Armidale and New England Hospital are particularly hard hit because the work they do at the public hospital is their main source of income, and the peaks and troughs make life difficult for them. The Minister indicated that the public hospital system is always under pressure, and that situation will not change. However, many State and Federal issues impact on the hospital system. There is virtually no work for the specialists in the Armidale public hospital, particularly because all gynaecological and obstetric operations have been transferred to the public system as a result of the medical indemnity insurance crisis.
I received that information directly from the doctors. That is important and it is also relevant to this process. Given the reductions in the elective surgery waiting lists since the March election, that is a valid criticism. Serious concerns have been raised that the hospital might lose the specialists that it has been able to recruit after months of effort. The Armidale and New England Hospital has just recruited an orthopaedic surgeon from Germany and is trying to recruit a second obstetrician/gynaecologist. The concern is that the dramatic reductions in the surgery lists will impact on that process. After the increase in funding the hospital treated too many elective surgery patients and that had a negative effect on its budget, so the number of patients treated was reduced. That will not assist in attracting and retaining specialists.
All of that has occurred while the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Paterson, officially launched the University Department of Rural Health, Northern New South Wales, in Tamworth. The initiative is aimed at luring doctors to rural areas by allowing students from the University of Newcastle to undertake their education and training at Tamworth Base Hospital and the local health service. Although it is an excellent scheme and will deliver some good outcomes to our country areas, it will not encourage doctors to consider practice in country areas because there is no recognition by government of the fundamental differences between large city and country hospitals and the services they offer. Maintaining the critical mass of specialists and specialist general practitioners at hospitals such as the Armidale and New England Hospital requires a much more delicate balance than that required in Sydney or Newcastle.
When specialists leave a large city hospital there is always a queue of recruits to select from to replace them. The situation in the country is different because there are fewer specialists and it is difficult to recruit replacements for those who leave. That is discouraging, and it is sometimes impossible for the remaining doctors to carry the increased workload. Taking an ad hoc and across-the-board approach to elective surgery lists discriminates against country hospitals. There should be a different policy for country hospitals that considers the critical mass of specialists and measures the staffing impacts of any proposed cuts.
No-one would suggest that there are no budgetary restraints—the Minister has acknowledged them today—but it is self-defeating to gut a critically balanced system during the down time and then face the lengthy and difficult task of rebuilding it when the budgetary situation improves, if it improves. The public health system is overburdened with private patients, largely because of the unresolved medical indemnity insurance crisis. Budgetary pressures mean that the public system is taking advantage of the situation by competing with private hospitals for private patients. In the country, where private hospitals have been hard hit, the medical indemnity insurance crisis is impacting negatively and the Commonwealth Government should step forward to deal with the issue.
Mr GEORGE (Lismore) [11.58 a.m.]: Much has been said this morning about hospital waiting lists and elective surgery cutbacks, and on a number of occasions throughout the debate reference has been made to Lismore. I point out that these problems did not begin on 24 March, the first working day after the election, but have existed, especially in relation to orthopaedic surgery services in the Lismore electorate, for a long time. I wish to quote the words of Dr Ray Randle, an orthopaedic surgeon respected in New South Wales, throughout Australia and overseas who specialises in joint replacement surgery. He resigned from the Lismore Base Hospital three years ago because of the waiting list problems, and says that the situation is still desperate. Dr Randle found it highly stressful and upsetting to be unable to help people who were often crying because they were in real pain. All members would at one time or another have been approached by people seeking assistance to reduce their waiting time by having their names moved further up the list.
Dr Randle has referred to examples of people sliding around their homes on their backsides because they cannot stand or walk. He has pointed out that the cost to the community in real terms of people being unable to work or even perform simple tasks, such as shopping or housework, is enormous. Before Dr Randle left the public hospital system, he offered to perform joint replacement surgery free of charge because he felt so bad about the long waiting lists and the pain and suffering that people were enduring. His offer was rejected because supposedly there was not enough money to pay for the implants, which at that time cost approximately $7,000 each. He admitted being very upset about that because he felt that he kept hitting a brick wall. The loss of Dr Randle to the public hospital system was enormous.
When Dr Randle was attached to the Lismore Base Hospital he was told that he could do only 16 joint replacements a year. The reality is that in private practice he does 16 joint replacements a week. Earlier in the debate the honourable member for Campbelltown stated that health services in Lismore had not been affected adversely. I invite the honourable member to visit Lismore and see what a pleasant place it is, and I will introduce him to the surgeons and hear first hand their problems. The surgeons were advised of the proposal of the Northern Rivers Area Health Service that orthopaedic surgeons do no more than one joint replacement per week during the period between March and May and probably no joint replacements at all between May and the end of the financial year. That is a clear breach of requirement 3, which has a target of two joint replacements per surgeon per week. That is a rate that one would expect could be accomplished in the second half of the year.
Added to that is the obviously political notice that the Northern Rivers Area Health Service sent out on Monday 24 March, the first working day after the election, imposing a reduced activity period over the Easter break. It was quite clear that it had no intention of providing adequate hospital theatre access for orthopaedic surgeons to perform joint replacement surgery at the Lismore Base Hospital. All the orthopaedic surgeons were affected and they resigned as a result. The President of the Staff Medical Council at the Lismore Base Hospital, Dr Chris Ingall, supported the stand taken by surgeons over the cutbacks. They had no other choice but to resign. The cutbacks have meant that the waiting period for joint replacement surgery at the hospital has climbed to approximately four years, yet the Government has claimed that cutbacks have reduced waiting times. Medical staff in Lismore tell me that the cutbacks will force waiting lists to blow out.
Mr O'Farrell: Whom would you most believe?
Mr GEORGE: As the Deputy Leader of the Opposition says, whom would we believe? The situation has weighed heavily on surgeons in Lismore and has caused them to take desperate action. After seeing patients suffering so much, they decided that they had no choice but to tender their resignations. Today the Minister for Health claimed that funding has been increased to reduce waiting lists. I certainly look forward to that.
Mr BROWN (Kiama) [12.03 p.m.]: It gives me great pleasure to speak in support of the amendment moved by the Minister for Health—a Minister of the Carr Government who is totally committed to the health care of the citizens in this State. For the record, I again state that this Government is spending record amounts on health. Its annual health budget now stands at $8.8 billion. As the Minister informed the House, this represents an increase of $3.5 billion since 1995, and since that date funding for elective surgery has consistently increased each year. The Illawarra Area Health Service and the Southern Area Health Service are good examples of dramatic increases in health spending. The Illawarra allocation is $265 million, which represents an increase of 7.6 per cent, and the allocation for the southern region is $144 million, which represents an increase of 8 per cent. The Government has provided additional funds for surgery to rural and regional New South Wales, despite the claims made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. In September last year the Government announced the New South Wales rural health plan that includes the rural orthopaedic funding package referred to in detail by the Minister for Health.
One part of this issue maintains the status quo, namely, that the Government has a plan, but the Opposition has a whinge. The Opposition went to its policy cupboard and, guess what? The status quo prevailed, and the Opposition's policy cupboard is still bare. Not a single Opposition policy has been endorsed by the clinical community. The Government certainly will investigate legitimate matters of concern, which also maintains the status quo, because that is what a compassionate Labor Government is all about. But this Government will not allow the efforts of doctors and nurses in the public hospital system to be undermined by the carping of an Opposition that does not have a policy bone in its sick and sorry carcass.
I am surprised that Opposition members have had the gall to lift their heads on health matters, given that their Federal counterparts are currently seeking to dismantle Medicare. The people who live in the Kiama electorate will never forget the Coalition closing the Kiama District Hospital. The real issue for members of the Opposition when health matters are being discussed is whether they support the Prime Minister in his push. The people of New South Wales are entitled to know where the Opposition stands. It is not as though Medicare is an obscure policy recognised by only a handful of people.
Mr O'Farrell: Point of order: I refer to the leave of the motion that I moved and the amendment moved by the Minister for Health, in which there is no mention of the word "Medicare"; nor has there been mention of Medicare during debate to this stage. This is an issue of State funding for elective surgery and waiting lists of the State's public hospitals. Medicare has not been referred to. It was not mentioned by the Minister, it was not raised by previous speakers, and it is not reflected by the motion. Clearly the reference is outside the leave of the motion.
Mr DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Order! I am sure the honourable member for Kiama was merely making a passing reference to Medicare and that he will deal appropriately with the comments of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BROWN: I referred to Medicare because this State receives funding from Medicare to run public hospitals. When health care funding is being discussed, Medicare is definitely an issue that should be addressed during debate.
Mr O'Farrell: Move a motion.
Mr BROWN: I would be willing to take a wager that every Australian family has benefited from Medicare since its inception. If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition or any other person wants to challenge that point and say that this debate has nothing to do with Medicare—
Mr O'Farrell: Point of order: I accept the honourable member's invitation and I challenge the point he makes. I say again that, as the Minister for Health acknowledged and as I acknowledged when I moved the motion, this debate concerns State funding to the State's hospital system to reduce elective surgery waiting lists. That State funding largely comes from GST revenue that is disbursed to the States. Medicare has not been mentioned either by the Minister for Health or in the motion. The reference is clearly outside the leave of the motion. Mr Deputy Speaker, even in your terms, the reference is no longer a passing mention. I ask the honourable member, who has now been a member of this Chamber long enough to understand such matters, to return to the leave of the motion.
Mr DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Order! I am sure the honourable member for Kiama understands that, and that he will conclude his speech by referring to the motion.
Mr BROWN: No-one trusts the Coalition in Federal or State government when it comes to funding. I support the amendment moved by the Minister.
Mr O’FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [12.08 p.m.], in reply: This motion is about the cynical act of the Carr Government, in the lead-up to the recent State election campaign, in announcing and providing additional funding to reduce elective surgery waiting lists at the State's public hospitals and then, within two days of Labor winning the election, the State's public hospitals experiencing cutbacks in surgery times, which is totally contrary to the policy that had been announced and funded up until that State election campaign. On 11 December, in a press release headed "Minister announces more surgery in all rural areas", the former Minister for Health said:
Today I am pleased to announce that this funding has been disbursed across the State with every rural area health service said to benefit. More importantly, people who need orthopaedic surgery, particularly joint replacements, will be able to get that care sooner in a hospital close to their home. Hip, knee and joint replacements are the targeted procedures for this funding, which is being determined by assessing the needs of each area.
The Minister went on to say that this was about treating more rural patients locally and sooner. It is clear that within 48 hours of the State election having being won Labor cutbacks were initiated to elective surgery programs at rural hospitals and area health services, and that is clearly at odds with the statement made by the former Minister for Health during the election campaign. The former Minister cannot have it both ways. He cannot say, in the first quarter of the financial year, that additional funding will be provided to allow these operations to be performed faster at a local level and then, in the fourth quarter of that financial year, say, "We are going to cutback on the number of operations being done."
The issue that the Minister for Health seeks to divert attention from in his amendment to the motion is his responsibility. Today in this House the Minister has provided no commitment to resolve the issue in Lismore, and nor has the Minister provided a commitment to reinstate the surgery lists as they were operating up until 22 March. The honourable member for Port Macquarie and the honourable member for Northern Tablelands, in particular, know that up until election day progress was being achieved in reducing elective surgery waiting lists across rural and regional New South Wales, and I suspect that they shared the Opposition's concerns about the impact of the Government's decision.
As the honourable member for Northern Tablelands said, the Government's decision has many adverse impacts. Clearly, it has an adverse impact upon patients who are awaiting surgery. The waiting lists will now blow out for at least the present quarter, and we do not know what will happen during the new financial year. Secondly, as the honourable member for Northern Tablelands quoted from his local media reports, the Government's decision is totally at odds with everything that Federal and State governments are doing to try to attract qualified specialist personnel to regional and rural areas.
The Minister acknowledges that point, but he does so as though he is in a dream and has no direct responsibility for it. Four surgeons at Lismore Base Hospital resigned because they felt that was the only way in which to bring public attention to this issue. After eight years under the Carr Labor Government even the most uninformed constituents in this State understand that the only way to get additional resources or have something fixed is by blowing the whistle. Under this Government, the squeaky wheel really does get the oil.
This is an open-and-shut case. Additional funds were made available, additional funds were promised, and claims were made that those funds would provide more operations locally and sooner to patients across the State, particularly in regional and rural areas. This was happening up until 22 March, but from 24 March suddenly we saw cutbacks occurring. I repeat: The House need not believe either the Independent members or the Opposition who share concerns about this; it should listen to the medical experts. The Chairman of Medical Staff Council at Armidale Base Hospital said, "The imposed rosters will rapidly take waiting lists back to the unsatisfactory pre-election levels." Dr Mark Pearce at Lismore made the point that the cutbacks mean that the waiting periods for a joint replacement would climb to about four years. This is a disgrace; it is a classic Labor tactic—do or say anything to get yourself elected. It is time this House stood firm on this issue and sought to impose greater transparency, accountability and, above all, honesty in an issue that ought to be beyond politics.
Question—That the amendment be agreed to—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 49
Ms Allan
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Ms Burney
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Collier
Mr Corrigan
Mr Crittenden
Mr Debus
Ms Gadiel
Mr Gibson
Mr Greene | Ms Hay
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
Mr Iemma
Ms Judge
Ms Keneally
Mr Lynch
Mr McBride
Mr McLeay
Ms Meagher
Ms Megarrity
Mr Mills
Mr Morris
Mr Newell
Ms Nori
Mr Orkopoulos
Mrs Paluzzano | Mr Pearce
Mrs Perry
Mr Price
Dr Refshauge
Ms Saliba
Mr Sartor
Mr Scully
Mr Stewart
Mr Tripodi
Mr Watkins
Mr West
Mr Whan
Mr Yeadon
Tellers,
Mr Ashton
Mr Martin |
Noes, 34
Mr Aplin
Mr Armstrong
Mr Barr
Ms Berejiklian
Mr Brogden
Mr Constance
Mr Debnam
Mr Draper
Mr Fraser
Mrs Hancock
Mr Hazzard
Ms Hodgkinson | Mrs Hopwood
Mr Humpherson
Mr Kerr
Mr McGrane
Ms Moore
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Oakeshott
Mr Page
Mr Piccoli
Mr Pringle
Mr Richardson
Mr Roberts | Ms Seaton
Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Souris
Mr Tink
Mr Torbay
Mr J. H. Turner
Mr R. W. Turner
Tellers,
Mr George
Mr Maguire |
Pairs
Mr Knowles | Mr Merton |
| Mr Gaudry | Mr Stoner |
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Amendment agreed to.
Question—That the motion as amended be agreed to—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 49
Ms Allan
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Ms Burney
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Collier
Mr Corrigan
Mr Crittenden
Mr Debus
Ms Gadiel
Mr Gibson
Mr Greene | Ms Hay
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
Mr Iemma
Ms Judge
Ms Keneally
Mr Lynch
Mr McBride
Mr McLeay
Ms Meagher
Ms Megarrity
Mr Mills
Mr Morris
Mr Newell
Ms Nori
Mr Orkopoulos
Mrs Paluzzano | Mr Pearce
Mrs Perry
Mr Price
Dr Refshauge
Ms Saliba
Mr Sartor
Mr Scully
Mr Stewart
Mr Tripodi
Mr Watkins
Mr West
Mr Whan
Mr Yeadon
Tellers,
Mr Ashton
Mr Martin |
Noes, 35
Mr Aplin
Mr Armstrong
Mr Barr
Ms Berejiklian
Mr Brogden
Mr Cansdell
Mr Constance
Mr Debnam
Mr Draper
Mr Fraser
Mrs Hancock
Mr Hazzard
Ms Hodgkinson | Mrs Hopwood
Mr Humpherson
Mr Kerr
Mr McGrane
Ms Moore
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Oakeshott
Mr Page
Mr Piccoli
Mr Pringle
Mr Richardson
Mr Roberts
Ms Seaton | Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Souris
Mr Tink
Mr Torbay
Mr J. H. Turner
Mr R. W. Turner
Tellers,
Mr George
Mr Maguire |
Pairs
| Mr Gaudry | Mr Merton |
| Mr Knowles | Mr Stoner |
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Motion as amended agreed to.