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Central Coast National Rugby League Team
Mr GRANT McBRIDE (The Entrance—Minister for Gaming and Racing) [3.19 p.m.]: My motion is urgent because the decision to admit a sixteenth team to the National Rugby League [NRL] competition for the 2006 season is imminent. The economic and social benefits that would flow from a Central Coast team will be lost if the NRL ignores the groundswell of support for a local team. Last Thursday representatives of all levels of government, including my colleague the honourable member for Gosford, packed down in a scrum to give the message to the community and to the State that they are committed to the urgency of an NRL team on the Central Coast.
Southern Area Health Service Budget
Ms KATRINA HODGKINSON (Burrinjuck) [3.20 p.m.]: My motion is urgent. For years I have been raising issues of concern about the Southern Area Health Service, but I have always been stonewalled by denial and lies in response from the Carr Labor Government—a Government that claims that it provides adequate funding, while at the same time threatens to sack whistleblowing staff. This motion is urgent because Labor's denials have been shown to be lies. The chair of the Southern Area Health Service board has resigned and the service has its fourth chief executive officer in just one year. This motion is urgent because today a great-grandmother, Jean Campbell from Goulburn, has told her story of the third world medical conditions that she was forced to endure because of inadequate funding by the Carr Government. The Goulburn Base Hospital was unable to afford sterilised bandages to dress Mrs Campbell's leg ulcer, so she was forced to take the used bandages home for them to be washed.
This motion is urgent because on Friday 13 February 58-year-old Michael Ferris was undergoing bowel cancer surgery at the Goulburn Base Hospital when the emergency generator failed during a blackout. The ever-resourceful staff at the hospital had to sew him up by torchlight. What a black Friday that was for the Goulburn Base Hospital, as I am sure honourable members can imagine! This motion is urgent because I spoke to a lady whose husband passed away at the Goulburn Base Hospital in January this year following a stroke. She wrote to me, but she does not want her name identified. The ward her husband was placed in had no airconditioning during a very hot summer, and the hospital had no portable fans. Temperatures regularly reached 37 and 38 degrees Celsius, but because the hospital had no portable fans this elderly lady was forced to bring her own fan into the hospital to try to keep her husband comfortable. That is something one would expect to happen in Bangladesh, not in Goulburn. This motion is urgent because the hospital did not have any swabs to clean this patient's mouth and swabs had to be borrowed from elsewhere.
Mr Steve Whan: Go and see a hospital in a third world country.
Ms KATRINA HODGKINSON: I expect the honourable member for Monaro to vote in favour of this motion. This motion is urgent because that very same gentleman had to undergo surgery to insert a peg tube into his stomach so he could be fed. That lady said:
They took him to theatre on Thursday morning only to find they didn't have the part. They sent him back to the ward until they received the part and inserted it on Friday.
This motion is urgent because earlier this year the maternity ward at the Goulburn Base Hospital had no nappies for several weeks. The community and I have a huge respect and great praise for the efforts of doctors, nurses and other front-line professionals at the Goulburn Base Hospital and the other Southern Area Health Service hospitals. This motion is urgent because doctors and nurses should not have to work under additional and unnecessary pressures. This motion is urgent because Mr Michael Deegan, a registered nurse who has been corresponding with me regularly for several years, wrote to me in November 2001 and stated that he was compelled to write on behalf of his colleagues and other workmates about the subject that he has been raising with the office of the Minister for Health for 12 months or more concerning the financial management of the Southern Area Health Service. His letter stated:
... no local supplier wants anything to do with the Goulburn Base Hospital particularly and SAHS generally because of the non-payment of accounts. So what does SAHS do?—change suppliers and then doesn't pay them either.
This motion is urgent because Dr Ruth Edwards and Dr Tony Wheelen were featured on the ABC's Stateline program recently, reporting on shortages of medical equipment in operating theatres and in the emergency department. The starving of funds of the Southern Area Health Service by the Carr Government is affecting the delivery of many health services. For example, the Program of Appliances for Disabled People [PADP] is totally in crisis. This motion is urgent because after a stroke, Robert Luke needed a calliper to walk properly, but PADP just could not afford to pay for the appliance that was already made and waiting for him. There are many other concerns with PADP, such as the non-availability of lifesaving sleep apnoea products, shortages of lifting devices for stroke victims and a lack of wheelchairs. These are just a few of the many complaints that I have raised with the Minister for Health.
This motion is urgent because the Minister for Health has told me that there is no restriction of the number of pap smears—something that is essential for all women over the age of 18 years to detect cervical cancer—that the Southern Area Health Service can do. However, it is a fact that the Southern Area Health Service management has decreed that community nurses can do no more than five pap tests a week. They have been told that they will be fired if they complain about endangering women's lives because of this cost-cutting measure. This motion is urgent because mental health services are stretched to breaking point. A long-time worker with mental health patients, Reverend Bob Grey, has told me that it is only a matter of time before police will have to shoot and kill a mental health patient in Goulburn because of inadequate treatment that is provided by the area health service.
The problems are still about the area health service and still about its $5 million debt. It is looking at staff cuts as a cost-saving measure. Those cuts must not come from front-line health professionals in the health service. This motion is urgent because the Southern Area Health Service has already closed the operating theatre at the Crookwell hospital and the Yass hospital's operating theatre looks set to follow. Labor is further centralising health care in larger centres to the great detriment of people who live in country areas. We need to maintain local hospitals and adequately fund rural public health. [Time expired.]
Question—That the motion for urgent consideration of the honourable member for The Entrance be proceeded with—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 48
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Ms Burney
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Collier
Mr Corrigan
Mr Crittenden
Ms D'Amore
Mr Debus
Ms Gadiel
Mr Gaudry
Mr Gibson | Mr Greene
Ms Hay
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
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
Mr Price
Dr Refshauge
Mr Sartor
Mr Scully
Mr Shearan
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 Cansdell
Mr Constance
Mr Debnam
Mr Draper
Mr Fraser
Mrs Hancock
Mr Hazzard
Ms Hodgkinson | Mrs Hopwood
Mr Humpherson
Mr Kerr
Mr McGrane
Mr Merton
Ms Moore
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Page
Mr Piccoli
Mr Pringle
Mr Richardson
Mr Roberts | Ms Seaton
Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Souris
Mr Stoner
Mr Tink
Mr Torbay
Mr R. W. Turner
Tellers,
Mr George
Mr Maguire |
Pair
Question resolved in the affirmative.