Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It never fails to amaze me that, every time I hear a Queensland member of the House of Representatives stand to speak in this House, they speak about state issues. They are afraid to talk about federal issues like the critical doctor shortage that exists in Australia today—federal issues that they should be putting their minds to. Tonight I would like to the raise in this parliament the issue of the critical doctor shortage in the Shortland electorate. I have raised this issue on many occasions. I have written to the Minister for Health and Ageing. I have raised the matter in budget considerations in detail. I have raised the matter, as I just mentioned, in many speeches. I have worked with the Central Coast Division of General Practice and in Wyong Shire to try and attract more GPs to the coast.

I have literally telephoned doctors in other areas throughout Australia and actually in New Zealand to try and get them to relocate to the Shortland electorate. I have supported every application for overseas trained doctors that has been put to me by practices of GPs within the Shortland electorate. I have a motion on the Notice Paper for this parliament that I hope will be debated, and in that motion I condemn the federal government for failing to adequately address and find health care in Australia, its role in causing the current doctor and nurse shortage in Australia and failing to address this shortage.

Unfortunately, the situation has gone from bad to worse, and this is on the Howard government’s watch, particularly that of the Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott. It is important that I acknowledge at this point that there is a doctor shortage throughout Australia. It is not only in the electorate of Shortland, but as I represent the people of Shortland I want their voice to be heard on this matter. A Productivity Commission report that examined the medical workforce shortage in Australia identified it as a major problem. The government has belatedly attempted to address the shortage by bringing more doctors into Australia from overseas, which I think has some accompanying ethical issues. It has increased the number of medical training places at universities—too little done too late by a government that must take responsibility for this shortage. In 1996, the first act of the Howard government once it was elected was to reduce the number of medical training places at universities. We all know it takes 10 years of training for a student doctor to be able to practise in the community and here we are, 10 years down the track, faced with this chronic doctor shortage. The government also restricted provider numbers. The solutions have been slow to arrive as the government has failed to adequately address this issue, which has had a greater impact on rural, regional and remote areas.

You might ask how this chronic doctor shortage is affecting the people in the electorate that I represent. As I mentioned at the start of my contribution, the situation has gone from bad to worse. In the Lake Macquarie part of my electorate, which has traditionally been a lot better serviced by GPs, a number of doctors have retired in recent times and now many people do not have a doctor at all. All the remaining doctors have closed their books and elderly people are sitting in their homes unable to have a doctor come and visit them. I must acknowledge that this is placing enormous pressure on doctors. It is leading to more doctors retiring because of their enormous workload and its related stress. It is leading to nursing home beds lying empty, not because no-one is there to fill them—there is actually a waiting list for all the nursing home and hostel beds—but because residents need to have a GP before they can accept one of these beds. I have had numerous phone calls from constituents in their 80s and 90s who do not have a GP and cannot access one in their local area because all the GPs in the area have closed their books. These are elderly people who cannot get out because of their disabilities and who were used to having GPs visit them at home. Now my office staff are actually going out, picking up people and taking them to see GPs outside their area. That is really not good enough.

We have had elderly people who have heart conditions ring our office because they cannot get in to see a doctor. Because they are fearful that they are going to run out of medication, they are taking half of their heart tablets at a time to make them last longer. I think this is a dreadful situation and I am sure members on both sides of the House would agree with me. Take sick people relying on emergency departments. We have had to organise an ambulance service to pick up an elderly resident every six months so she can have her medication checked at the local public hospital.

I feel that this government is really letting people down. House calls are a thing of the past and doctors comment to me that, because of the fact that many of the people that they see are elderly, they have very complex problems, that the amount of time that these patients need when they come to visit the doctor is much longer and that they are now concentrating on treating people with very acute illnesses that require enormous management. Doctors comment to me, and I am sure the House is interested in this, that it is an exercise in frustration and hand wringing, that they are overloaded and just cannot wave a wand, that there are management issues, that increasing nursing services to assist them to deal with the shortage is one thing that has helped them, that the training of new doctors is lagging and that they have a few problems with some of the decisions that the college of GPs has made. They also argue that not enough incentives are in place to encourage medical students to go into general practice, that there should be some more sweeteners to get students to consider becoming GPs as well as sweeteners to attract medical students to enter the specialties, and that younger graduates are job sharing.

I have had doctors ring my office and ask me why they have had patients go to their surgery and say, ‘Jill Hall said you have to see me.’ Why does this happen? It happens because these people are desperate. I have told no-one to go to their GP and say that. But the bottom line is that these people are sick and have no other option. They do not know who to turn to. Sydney GPs will not leave their area and come to areas such as Shortland. But it is a beautiful area, and if there are any GPs listening to this speech I can tell them this: I do not think there is a nicer place in Australia in which to live. It is on the edge of a lake. We have wonderful surfing beaches and great schools. We are close to Sydney and we have a wonderful lifestyle. I encourage you to think about coming to live in Shortland.

Unfortunately, doctors generally prefer to stay in the inner city areas, so there is a genuine, chronic shortage in outer metropolitan areas like mine. The government’s outer metropolitan strategy has been responsible for three new doctors coming to the area, but six doctors have retired within the last 12 months. The strategy is not even anywhere near keeping pace. We need to look at some new solutions. Doctors would like to be able to employ more practice nurses. I think the government should support that. I think we should really look at the issue of nurse practitioners. We need greater flexibility in the area of GP training. We need programs that value the role and work of GPs. We need to train more doctors. Every doctor I speak to says that we need to train more doctors. In Shortland electorate we need to have the RAMA classification changed. It is time for action. The time for words and promises has gone. (Time expired)