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- 11 April 2001
Shoalhaven Hospital Facilities
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Page: 13597
The Hon. D. T. HARWIN [10.03 p.m.]: This afternoon the Leader of the Government described me as a whinger for drawing the House's attention to problems at Shoalhaven hospital. I make no apologies and return to the subject now. Shoalhaven is one of the fastest-growing parts of New South Wales and has been for some time. Shoalhaven hospital requires significant upgrade work to meet the needs of the growing population. Stage two of the hospital upgrade is currently proceeding and will provide the hospital with 12 extra emergency beds, five extra intensive care beds and two extra operating theatres. These additions are very welcome and I thank the Government for continuing work first announced under the previous Coalition Government in the 1991-92 State budget. The 17 extra beds and other rebuilt facilities are appreciated but there are many other concerns at Shoalhaven hospital.
In the first place, this upgrade will only marginally alleviate the most significant problem at Shoalhaven hospital and, indeed, around the State. That is, of course, waiting lists. When the Carr Government was elected to office in March 1995 it famously promised to halve waiting lists within the year—a promise it did not keep. The situation at Shoalhaven hospital is illustrative of that. In March 1995, 793 people were on the waiting list for elective surgery at Shoalhaven hospital. In the figures most recently available to me, for the month of February, that number has almost doubled to 1,499. Of that number, 369 have been waiting for more than 12 months.
Shoalhaven hospital's experience is that of so many hospitals around the State and represents a fundamental betrayal by this Government. It has abrogated its election commitment and is taking the people of the Shoalhaven for granted. It needs to find meaningful solutions for a statewide problem and stop trying to mislead the Shoalhaven people that the hospital upgrade is a panacea for this problem. A number of other concerns are worthy of mention.
One I raised earlier today was the effect of the construction deadline imposed by the State Government for completion of stage two. The hospital and contractors have been told networks must be completed by 1 January 2003. However, to meet a deadline clearly motivated by the necessity for a pre-election start in early 2003, the hospital has had to reduce services to fast-track construction, rather than choose a more orderly construction program that would have enabled beds and other facilities to remain in service for longer. Day surgery is now being carried out in rooms previously used for meetings.
Concerns about these constraints and other problems at the hospital have led to seven visiting medical officers handing in their resignations. Their departure closely follows resignations by the urologist and the geriatrician. Shoalhaven hospital, servicing a population that has an above-average number of aged persons, has been left without a full-time geriatric specialist. The Illawarra Area Health Service has provided a part-time locum until 1 July. At the same time it is funding 4½ full-time geriatric specialists at Wollongong Hospital. The inequity is one of the reasons why many people in the Shoalhaven believe that the Illawarra Area Health Service is showing a pro-Wollongong bias.
Another reason arises from the fact that the post-mortem facility at Shoalhaven hospital is being closed in August 2001, with the function being transferred to Wollongong Hospital. Incredibly this is being implemented despite the fact that delays in having post-mortems carried out at Wollongong Hospital average three to five days whereas the current turnaround at Shoalhaven hospital rarely exceeds 36 hours. It is incredible that the upgrade of the Shoalhaven hospital is being used as an excuse to reduce facilities for the people of the Shoalhaven. Clearly, Shoalhaven hospital is not being given a fair go by the Illawarra Area Health Service and the Government but they refuse to concede there is a problem. Three questions I have asked in this House on problems at the hospital have not been answered by the Minister for Health. The silence of the honourable member for South Coast on this issue is also deafening. He is taking local people for granted rather than tackling his Labor colleagues on the problems that the community is concerned about and that I have been raising. The Federal member for Gilmore, Joanna Gash, is right when she says the situation at the hospital, "is absolutely disgraceful, but not as disgraceful as the lack of action or just plain protest" by the honourable member for South Coast.
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