Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to grieve tonight about the state of the delivery of health services in Townsville in my electorate of Herbert. There are a number of issues that I would like to cover tonight. The first one is that recently the Prime Minister came to Townsville to announce a PET scanner for the North. We have been fighting for a PET scanner for a long time. It is the most convenient way of detecting many cancers, because it really is a once-only procedure—you do not have to keep going back to get checked with other X-ray procedures. At the moment people from Townsville have to go to Brisbane, which is something like 1,100 air kilometres away, and they have to take family support members, which is very difficult for them.

We are the capital city of Northern Australia, effectively, and we are entitled to have a PET scanner. So our community was overjoyed when the Prime Minister came and announced a PET scanner for Townsville. I had previously approached the health minister and said: ‘Look, Minister, I have got a great deal for you. I have a private company who will provide a PET scanner. They will put in half the capital cost if you put in the other half; they are prepared to put in $2 million, and what is more they will do Medicare rebatable procedures; they have the support of the Townsville hospital; and they already have a nuclear radiation specialist on their staff—if we get cracking now.’

But the government rejected that and the Prime Minister came and said, ‘No, we’ll fully fund a PET scanner.’ So it was double the cost. Then the Prime Minister said, ‘But it will be in the public hospital’, which immediately meant it would only do half the patients, because the efficiency of the public system is about half of that of the private system. So we had this deal where it was double the cost with half the number of procedures. But what the PM did not tell the community was that it was not going to be delivered until 2014. My community expects a PET scanner basically next year, but it is not going to happen. It is really sad that the community has been misled in that way. But it does not surprise me, as the same was done in relation to the GP superclinic promised for Townsville.

That promise was made prior to the last election, 800 days ago or so. The health minister came to Townsville and announced a GP superclinic. Nothing has happened. It is to go on land opposite where my office is—the busiest corner outside Brisbane. I know that it is not going. It is nowhere near being started. It is going to be three years and more before we get a GP superclinic. That is really sad. The public has been given the expectation that there will be this clinic that will deliver integrated services across the board. That is the model that was proposed. But that is nowhere near in sight. It is a terrible way to manage the health care of our community.

When the government announced its plans for taking over the health system in Australia, it kind of half pinched a coalition policy, which was to have local hospital board control. There are some very good reasons for that. I now see that the government is advertising on television and in the press that they are going to have local control. It is actually not true. What the government announced was that it would have regional boards that would supervise a number of hospitals in the region. But there would not be local control of a local hospital. It is sad that the government said one thing and is now trying to tell the public another thing. It is not a good way to manage health.

I fear that the hospital system, which in Townsville goes from crisis to crisis, waiting list to waiting list—and there is a waiting list to get on the waiting list—is never going to change. When Mr Beattie was in power as state premier, he said that he was going to put a few extra billion into health and fix all these problems. But it never changed. I rather suspect that many of my colleagues around the Australia have had the same experience, no matter which side of the parliament that they are on. They have heard all these promises about fixing the health system, but it never changes.

On the one hand, the more money that you put into health the more money there is to put into health. That makes things pretty difficult. The new technologies are costing more and more. But the leaders of our country do not seem to be able to grasp how to fix the problem. All this consultation goes on, people go around the country and there is lots of talking. But I rather suspect that in 2014 the same problems will be there. And I rather suspect that many of my colleagues on both sides of the parliament think the same way.

Some of the problems are to do with workforce issues in the public hospital system. I am not in any way demeaning the work that is done by the doctors and nurses in the hospital system. What I am saying is that when you count the number of bureaucrats in the hospital or health system and count the number of practitioners, things are out of kilter. In the federal budget this year there was another $500 million provided just for bureaucrats. That is pretty tough, I reckon. That makes things very difficult.

I would certainly like all of us in the parliament to apply our minds to how we may be able to get some meaningful changes made. It is kind of like trying to manage Defence. Many of us do not seem to be able to get the tiger by the tail. It is the same with health. We really have to get the tiger by the tail. We have to make improvements. People are entitled to decent health care and they are entitled to timely health care.

It is sad. All of us in the parliament have examples of people coming to us and saying: ‘I’ve been in agony. I need a hip replacement and I can’t get it for another two years’—that sort of thing. Or they might say, ‘My teeth are rotting and I can’t get my teeth fixed and they’re telling me I’ve got to wait seven years.’ It is pretty tough for a country that is so wealthy that that should be the case. All of us on both sides of the parliament should do our bit to try to make sure that we do provide the best care that we can to people who need health care. I thank the parliament for its indulgence tonight.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.