Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill 2010. The explanatory memorandum sets out the following on page 3:

The Bill provides for the establishment of the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) as a permanent, independent statutory authority under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997.

The legislation provides a framework for the establishment of the Commission, including the expanded role for the Commission of setting national clinical standards and strengthened clinical governance.  It is intended that these arrangements under this expanded role will be further developed in consultation with the states and territories and subject to finalising financial commitments.

The establishment of this body forms part of the National Health and Hospitals Network Agreement between the Commonwealth and the States (with the exception of Western Australia) and Territories endorsed on 20 April 2010.

In the bill itself, the functions of the commission are outlined in section 9. I do not propose to read those, but they are expansive, as they should be. I do, however, want to quote from a press release dated 25 October 2010 from the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, and the minister for health, which basically outlines the purpose of what we are talking about today. I quote:

The new funding arrangements for Australia’s health and hospital system will:

• ensure, for the first time, that Federal Governments properly fund Australia’s public hospitals—reversing the Commonwealth’s declining share of hospital funding;
• ensure that for the first time, the Commonwealth will fund hospitals for each service they provide, rather than through block grants—meeting increases in demand and helping take pressure off hospital waiting lists;
• allow the Commonwealth, as dominant funder, to introduce new national standards for public hospital services, ensuring all patients receive timely and high quality services; and
• drive improvements in primary care and prevention, because as the dominant funder of the hospital system, the Commonwealth will have an incentive to provide better primary care and prevention services to take the pressure off our hospital system. 

Specifically the legislation will ensure the Commonwealth will fund:

• 60 per cent of the efficient price of every public hospital service provided to public patients;
• 60 per cent of recurrent expenditure on research and training functions undertaken in public hospitals;
• 60 per cent of capital expenditure; and
• 100 per cent of GP and primary health care services.

               …            …            …

The legislation reflects the historic agreement to reform Australia’s health and hospital system signed by the Commonwealth and seven States and Territories.

Under this agreement, the Commonwealth Government will relieve the States and Territories of $15.6 billion in growth of health costs from 2014-15 to 2019-20 - allowing them to invest in other essential services.

It is really a massive investment in our health and hospital networks, as it should be, because they were in need of that massive injection of funds. Over the 11½ years of the former government, public hospitals were dying a death of a thousand cuts. There was an ideological spend by the former government that was more interested in other aspects of the health system than public hospitals and the general welfare of the community. It was ideologically driven and we are still getting that in the current opposition. That is no way to provide services.

I also want to point out a couple of things that have happened over the last couple of years in my area and adjoining my area in terms of the hospitals under the Labor government. In January 2009 it was announced that there would be a Medicare-eligible magnetic resonance imaging service at Bankstown hospital. The member for Blaxland, Jason Clare, and I visited the hospital and that service is now up and running. We have also had a fresh visit to the hospital. It is something I welcomed at the time and it is certainly an area of need. Bankstown hospital is a terrific hospital and it will provide a wonderful service through the MRI. Too often we used to miss out under the former government.

In March 2009, the then Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, announced one-off funding grants worth almost $18,000 to Sydney South West Area Health Service, including Bankstown Ethnic Day Care, the Community Independent Support Service and the Bankstown Dementia Respite project. These one-off grants would improve and support respite services for carers in Bankstown to cover costs such as minor building modifications or to purchase or replace equipment and furniture. These sorts of grants go a long way, because we have an ageing population. There is a need for assistance for the services that are provided. We cannot continue to rely on the goodwill of people in the local community and on Squibb making a contribution.

In July 2010 the Attorney-General, the federal member for Barton, and the state member for Oatley, Kevin Greene, as a result of the COAG agreement, saw $790,000 for new surgical and emergency equipment and minor capital works at St George Hospital, which is at the other end of my electorate. It is not actually in my electorate, but it does service my electorate. That was about enhancing patient care. Robert McClelland, Kevin Greene and I visited the hospital. We sat down with the nurses and the doctors, and they were over the moon about what that extra funding would do. Patients at St George Hospital were set to benefit from more than $5.4 million in additional funding for the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service under those reform agreements. That reform agreement was actually about more money, which is very much needed.

The package of new medical technology for the hospital included an anaesthetic-monitoring system for $450,000, a cryosurgery machine for $200,000, two ECG machines for $24,000, a compact ultrasound machine for $40,000, a ventilator for $20,000 and a bariatric trauma bed for $15,000. Also included in emergency department funding was $25,000 for minor capital works to facilitate early assessment for patients needing emergency care.

A lot of support is given by the local community in the St George area and the Bankstown area to their local hospitals through the club movement, of which I am a proud member. I am currently the elected President of the Revesby Workers Club. Sporting clubs such as the Bankstown Sports Club kick in to Bankstown Hospital for particular projects. Our charity last year gave $45,000 to Bankstown Hospital. We will give more money to them for particular projects this year. St George Hospital has a wonderful support structure, not just from the clubs but also from local residents—people who have been the beneficiaries of operations at the hospital. That all supplements what the Commonwealth and the state government do, and it should not be underestimated. The local community has raised millions of dollars for St George Hospital over time, and they are to be commended for it.

On 7 October Carmel Tebbutt, the state Minister for Health, visited Bankstown Hospital, together with the state member for East Hills, Alan Ashton, and the state member for Bankstown, Tony Stewart. There was $1.2 million in funding for new medical equipment, all arising out of the health and hospital reform agreement signed by the NSW government and the Commonwealth government. As a result of the funding boost, Bankstown Hospital’s emergency department would receive more than $350,000 in essential equipment, including heart-monitoring equipment, a defibrillator and an ECG machine to record patients’ heart activity. The hospital’s operating theatres would also benefit from more than $920,000 in funding for internal camera equipment for endoscopy procedures and for an extra recovery bed. That is all very much needed.

On 14 October the member for Barton and I announced funding of $2.9 million for a training facility for Wesley Hospital at Kogarah, which is in the member’s electorate. This $2.9 million is to build a new clinical training facility at Wesley Hospital. The project will create space for clinical training facilities where students will gain practical experience in psychology in a private psychiatric hospital, expand training positions within the Sydney metropolitan area, provide students with exposure to patients in an acute psychiatric context and meet training concerns in areas of professional workforce shortage.

That is the sort of money we should not apologise for. That is where our taxes go, and we should explain that to our communities. It is essential that governments look, over time, at increasing this sort of funding to these hospitals, because they do good work. I commend the bill before the House. I think it is on the right track and that the government is trying to do the right thing.

See this speech in context