Teresa Gambaro (Petrie, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak tonight on the perilous state of health in my electorate of Petrie. The recent revelation that the Beattie government has botched the possible return to Australia of Dr Death, Jayant Patel, shows plainly the ministerial incompetence that we are all forced to live with. The decision by the Attorney-General, Linda Lavarch, goes to the core of what is wrong with Queensland Health. Also, her decision not to bring back Dr Patel to face justice only prolongs the increased pain for all of his victims and their families. I, as all Queenslanders do, carry the burden of the Beattie government and its dismal record on health.

Redcliffe is a very beautiful part of my electorate. Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, I know that, in your capacity as Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, you visited it on many occasions. It is also home to one of the busiest hospitals. Redcliffe Hospital is increasingly showing strain from the appallingly inadequate resources provided to it. Unfortunately, Redcliffe Hospital is too often mentioned in the same sentence as ‘long waiting lists’ and ‘interrupted essential services’ and ‘inadequate equipment’. The doctors and nurses that service the Redcliffe peninsula do work hard to provide vital health services to the community but they are just not receiving the support they deserve.

It was really disturbing recently to read of the need for 24-hour security guards to be introduced in public hospitals. Nurses and doctors in emergency wards are constantly being abused by patients who have had to wait inordinately long periods of time, and they are being put at risk. It is just not good enough. There is nothing worse than waiting, particularly for those requiring surgery to improve their quality of life. Yet they have to wait weeks and months to finally receive treatment.

The waiting list at Redcliffe Hospital continues to grow and this is an indication again of a facility bursting at the seams that needs attention immediately. At the end of July this year there were 1,184 people waiting for surgery on the Redcliffe peninsula, an increase of 103 on the same time in 2005. Many of these have been waiting for a long time, some for more than a year, and they have been joined by many more in the past year.

One of the things that general practitioners constantly talk to me about is the cost-shifting to private clinics. Quite often a patient will report as a public patient, an outpatient, but they are constantly being referred to the private sector for more tests. Doctors are very concerned about this because they want to know where the responsibility lies in the care of the patient and also, with the increasing referrals, they have to refer to Medicare for their provider numbers, which is something that the private hospital system should be doing itself. This cost shifting seems to be growing more and more each day, the more I talk to general practitioners in my electorate.

The number of my constituents waiting for non-critical category 3 surgery has similarly blown out. As of July there were 272 people who had been waiting for at least a year—365 days or more—for treatment, compared to 158 just 12 months earlier. These people have problems requiring general surgery and treatment in the specialist areas such as orthopaedics, urology and vascular surgery. While their problems are not life threatening, their only desire is to get healthy and be able to get on with living their lives. Many of my constituents have their lives on hold while they are waiting for a decision from Queensland Health.

Redcliffe and Caboolture hospitals operate under the same Redcliffe-Caboolture Health Service District. While neighbouring communities use the services of Caboolture Hospital to cover the shortfall due to stressed services at Redcliffe Hospital, again it forces already gravely ill patients to travel to see a specialist and to travel longer. Many of them do not have transport to travel even further to Caboolture to try to get treatment and to get well again.

The increasing workload takes its toll not only on the patients but also on the staff of Redcliffe Hospital who are constantly bearing the brunt of this terrible resourcing shortfall. Helpless pawns in the Beattie government’s ineptitude, doctors are being required to work longer shifts and extra days to cover weekend rosters to make up for inadequate staffing levels. I was told by a doctor today that their weekend shifts are not counted as part of their working hours, which I find an absolutely appalling state of affairs. Forcing doctors to work such long hours can only lead to tragic consequences. Through no real fault of their own, practitioners will be more prone to making errors because of their tiredness and working the extra shifts. It also raises the likelihood of doctors experiencing burn-out and the overall medical system losing valuable employees and experience, in turn making the situation even worse.

To add to this terrible situation, Redcliffe is also home to an ageing GP population. The existing GPs are booked out and their consultation books are full. They are not taking any more new patients. Many of them are retiring or leaving the profession. Their average age, I am told, is between 65 and 70 and that puts pressure on those remaining as well as making it difficult for patients. We need to encourage young doctors to go into general practice and we need to look at this new generation of young doctors and make sure that many of them go into general practice and family oriented practices. It is important that we keep doing that, because general practitioners are greatly needed on the peninsula, where they have been respected for the generations of care that they have provided.

But the news is not all grim. Recently I received the good news that the Redcliffe peninsula has been considered an area of workforce shortage for general practitioners. I would like to thank the Divisions of General Practice and particularly Dr Ralph Smallhorn for his wonderful assistance in ensuring constant doctor assessment and numbers, and liaising with me to ensure that the general practitioner and workforce issues are raised and addressed. Now Redcliffe, along with Deception Bay, Griffin-Mango Hill and Bald Hills, will be eligible for Australian government programs targeted at addressing the shortfall in GP numbers. The GP workforce in Redcliffe is ageing, and this will ensure that we will have more doctors. Medical practices in Redcliffe may now be eligible for the More Doctors for Outer Metropolitan Areas measure. The Australian government provided $64.5 million in the 2006-07 budget for a further four years. Doctors will also be able to avail themselves of an incentive grant, which was increased to $40,000 for doctors to establish a new practice in an outer metropolitan area and up to $30,000 for doctors who want to relocate to existing outer metropolitan areas. I am really pleased that Redcliffe is now considered an area of workforce shortage and will be able to employ overseas doctors who are suitably trained. This will allow them to meet the huge demand for practitioners that we have at the moment.

Castledine and Chermside are not eligible; however, they are eligible to apply for after-hours services, particularly for Saturday and Sunday, under the Round the Clock Medicare: Investing in After Hours GP Services Program. There is a huge demand, particularly in the Chermside area, which has a very large over-65 age cohort and has already, some years ago, exceeded the national average. But I will continue to work to ensure that we have adequate numbers of doctors on the Redcliffe peninsula.

The coalition government spent $1,689 per capita on health—twice that of the states and territories, which spent only some $790 per capita. We are serious about contributing to health; continuing to make sure that the government provide adequate services, particularly to our ageing population; encouraging doctors to move to the Redcliffe peninsula; and making sure that general practice is recognised and that more doctors continue to pursue general practice as a vocation.

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