Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier today I received an invitation, as did everyone in this place, to attend the Canberra launch of White Ribbon Day. The Canberra launch will be a preview of the advertising materials and will kick off the campaign for White Ribbon Day, which will actually be held on 25 November.

White Ribbon Day is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I urge all in Parliament House to find time in their busy schedules to attend the Canberra launch. This invitation particularly caught my attention, not only because violence against women is something that I have always had concerns about but also because of some recent events in my home town of Perth.

Last week, my good friend and colleague, the state member for Victoria Park, Ben Wyatt, raised an alarming issue in the state parliament. The issue concerned the role of GPs in treating violence and assault. Mr Wyatt, in raising the issue in parliament, got hold of a copy of the Canning Division of General Practice’s guide entitled Identifying and responding to family violence: A guide for general practitioners. It stated on the front of their brochure:

Family violence is coercive and controlling behaviour by a family member that causes physical, sexual and/or emotional damage to others in the family, including causing them to live in fear and threatening to harm people, pets or property. Family violence is most commonly perpetrated by one partner towards another (when it is sometimes called ‘domestic violence’ or ‘intimate partner abuse’) and/or by an adult towards a child or children (often referred to as child abuse). Other forms include elder abuse or sibling abuse. Whether the violence is physical, sexual or emotional, it may have long term detrimental effects.

It sounds like a very compassionate, good brochure, one that we should all find the time to read. It goes on to state:

The medical profession has key roles to play in early detection, intervention and provision of specialised treatment of those who suffer the consequences of domestic violence, whether it be physical, sexual or emotional.

Imagine, therefore, my surprise and Mr Wyatt’s surprise when it was revealed last week in Perth that a number of local GPs within that division and more widely actually refused to see people who had suffered some form of assault or violence. Indeed, there are signs up in the receptions of a number of GP clinics saying: ‘Assault victims will not be seen. Please go to your local hospital.’ It would seem some local GPs in that region need to get hold of the brochure and re-educate themselves about the important role that the Canning Division of GP says they can play in the treatment of violence.

Mr Wyatt, a former DPP prosecutor and, as I say, the new member for Victoria Park, was so concerned about this attitude of a number of local GPs in one particular clinic that he went to the trouble of raising the matter in the state parliament last week. It was heartening, therefore, to see that our state Minister for Health, Jim McGinty, was immediately supportive of Mr Wyatt’s concerns. In fact, he said when the matter was raised in parliament that he ‘urged all medical practitioners who may be contemplating this type of action’—the action of putting up a sign saying ‘please go to your local hospital’—‘to place the care of their patients ahead of any short-term financial gain’.

I mention short-term financial gain because apparently the issue that was raised when Mr Wyatt inquired into this after a number of his constituents had been refused medical treatment by their local GPs was that:

… doctors believed the reporting requirements of domestic violence disrupted the commercial activities of operating a general practice …

I find that, in the year 2006, absolutely astounding. It would seem to me that we need more than one White Ribbon Day to deal with what is still an insidious problem in our community which some members of one of the most elite and trusted professions still cannot come to terms with.

One practice in particular say they will not treat these people because it ‘disrupted the commercial activities of operating a general practice, particularly given the doctor could end up having to give evidence in court’. Nothing has staggered me more than that. It is absolutely outrageous that a medical practitioner could say they would prefer not to see someone in need because they might have to give evidence in court about a crime that had been committed against that person.

Mr Wyatt went on to tell parliament that two women had been refused treatment for domestic violence injuries by their long-term GPs. Usually when you have a long-term GP it is a relationship of trust, and I presume those two women in particular have no trust or respect for those GPs. The GP had told them: ‘I’m sorry; I don’t see victims of domestic violence. You have got to go to Armadale or Royal Perth Hospital.’ So a woman in this case turned up in need to see her long-term GP and was told instead she must go to accident and emergency at her local hospital and take the care there when she could get it rather than turn up in need to see her local GP.

The Western Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association has told Mr Wyatt that it is up to an individual doctor to decide how his or her surgery is run. The Western Australian president of the Australian Medical Association has refused to condemn this practice of refusing treatment to people who are victims of violence or assault, and that is appalling in and of itself. In my view, the AMA, if it wishes to maintain its professional standing and reputation in this place and in the wider community, must intervene to force change upon those doctors who are refusing to see assault victims. Lame excuses about hospitals being more able to deal with these patients are clearly unacceptable. If the patient feels that the doctor is able to deal with them and has that long-term relationship of trust, surely it is up to the doctor to provide that treatment.

The Medical Board of Western Australia must also be willing to step in if those measures are not enough. As I say, it is heartening to see that the state Minister for Health, Mr McGinty, is supportive of such intervention. It is an irony indeed that the police service in Western Australia has undergone significant cultural change, intervenes a lot more readily and is a lot more thoughtful in the way it handles domestic violence matters. Now it is actually the medical profession—the so-called caring profession—that is leaving our community in the lurch.

The main medical centre at the heart of these complaints is a centre called HealthPoint Belmont Medical Centre. It is in Cloverdale. The centre is owned by a company called IPM, and their state director, Mr Dale Brown, has said that there was a social problem in the Belmont area and staff at HealthPoint were often exposed to violent situations, including a recent stabbing, so the sign had been put up to try and prevent such situations occurring. I am sure we all have deep sympathy and concern for any staff who would be in a situation of being exposed to any form of violence or threatening behaviour. But, if your way of managing this crisis in our community is to refuse service to others in need who have already suffered that assault because it is not commercially viable and because you do not want to give evidence in court, that is completely inexcusable. These people really need to think about whether medicine is the practice for them.