- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Assembly
- 16 November 2004
Surgical Trainee Positions
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 34 of 38
| Next Item »
Page: 12902
Mr RICHARD TORBAY (Northern Tablelands) [6.15 p.m.]: Last week I spoke in this House about the urgent need for a new level four intensive care unit [ICU] at Armidale hospital. The urgency related to the difficulty in attracting surgeons and other specialists to the hospital, which services the Northern Tablelands region. The level of an intensive care unit sets the standard for a hospital. The Northern Tablelands community is not prepared to accept a downgrade of its major hospital because its facilities are below par. This week it has come to light—as it came to light in question time today—that we not only have to push for an ICU unit; we also have to push for surgeons to staff it. The Minister for Health is locked in a battle with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons because it is not training sufficient numbers of surgeons to meet our needs.
I support the campaign of the Minister for Health to break the training monopoly that that college has traditionally enjoyed. Cartels to maintain the elite status and corresponding income levels of the surgical profession at the expense of community need are unacceptable. This head-in-the-sand attitude to the health needs of people in this State, in particular those in regional New South Wales, cannot be sanctioned. Changes are required to rectify the situation. When the New England and Hunter area health services were merged the rationale was to cut administrative costs and reallocate funds to clinical services. I suggest that the present situation is an opportunity to do just that. The John Hunter Hospital, a training institution linked to the University of Newcastle, should be accredited to train and examine surgeons for the north and north-west regions of the State.
In addition, this training program should link with the Armidale and Tamworth hospitals through a medical school at the University of New England. Decentralisation of medical training has been discussed for a long time. However, despite all the rhetoric, the situation has remained the same. The training hospitals have all been established in large metropolitan cities. As a result, the needs of rural and regional communities have been sidelined. With the high standard of telecommunications that we enjoy today in this part of the State there is no good reason why the training of surgeons, other specialists and doctors cannot be decentralised. Training monopolies and cartels do not exist only within the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons; the whole concept of medical training is held to be too expensive and too exclusive to be offered outside metropolitan cities.
I believe that the current standoff over the training of surgeons in our State should be the start of some new thinking about the way we approach the delivery of health services. There is no reason why regionally based medical and specialist training could not also deliver doctors and surgeons for metropolitan hospitals. There is no reason why the expertise of the profession in Sydney could not be shared with regional training facilities through telecommunications and other links. Our society is ageing and we are hearing a lot about the impact that will have on services, particularly health services. If we are to meet that increasing demand in the regions as well as in Sydney there must be a greater investment in infrastructure and training. That investment should commence now.
This Government has increased its spending on health, which is to its credit. However, it has also created a huge and powerful bureaucracy that is not amenable to change. The bottom line is not how many reports are written at how many desks or stored away in how many bottom drawers; the bottom line is the level of health service delivery. Are health services being delivered equitably across the community?
As I have said many times, Sydney is not New South Wales. Many communities in New South Wales outside Sydney have suffered through endless changes and restructures of the health system but do not have a lot to show for them. Local autonomy has been lost. Turf wars and power struggles within bureaucracies have seen some hospitals downgraded at the expense of others. I have called for major upgrades of the Armidale, Glen Innes and Tenterfield hospitals to safeguard our region through the merger of the Hunter and New England area health services. We do not want to be sidelined. We also do not want to be left without surgeons and specialists. I call on the Minister for Health to include in his discussions the opportunity of extending the training of surgeons to John Hunter Hospital through the University of Newcastle, linking with Armidale, Tamworth and the University of New England, as a model for a new deal on regional health care.
Private members' statements noted.
[Madam Acting-Speaker (Ms Marie Andrews) left the chair at 6.20 p.m. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m.]
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:33:27 : Update this page