Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying prior to the Senate moving on to other business, the principles and objectives of the radiology memorandum of understanding include the need to promote access to quality, affordable radiology services and to improve the quality and delivery of radiology services. These are objectives that we should all aspire to and that we are hopeful this legislation will in fact deliver. Labor does, though, consider that these objectives would be even better served by a greater investment in and emphasis on e-health broadly and teleradiology in particular.

In March this year my colleague Senator Conroy announced Labor’s broadband policy—an area on which the government continues to bury its head in the sand. As announced in March, federal Labor will revolutionise Australia’s internet infrastructure by creating a new national broadband network that will connect 98 per cent of Australians to high-speed broadband internet services at speeds over 40 times faster than most current speeds. Broadband offers enormous opportunities for e-health, enhancing the potential for a range of cost savings and service improvements for Australian citizens. E-health in particular has the potential to significantly improve access to healthcare services for Australians living in rural and regional areas as well as those Australians who find it difficult to leave their homes, including the elderly and those people with disabilities. It also offers ways to more flexibly and conveniently utilise our stretched health workforce.

Teleradiology, the electronic transmitting of radiographic patient images and consultative text from one location to another, is already being utilised in Australia, but enhanced broadband technology provides the key to significantly expanding these services. Given the national shortage of radiologists—another area given insufficient attention by the current minister—expanding the use of teleradiology would also be a focus of the next radiology memorandum of understanding. When we see reports such as the one that appeared in the Hobart Mercury on 29 March 2007 stating that Tasmanian women were waiting weeks for the results of breast-screening mammograms sent to New South Wales to be read, we can see the advantages of technology that would allow digital images to be transmitted between and viewed instantaneously by surgeries and clinics, hospitals or, in this case, specialists in different states.

Recently I was on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. There the Queensland government has installed a very high quality X-ray machine. It has installed a telehealth facility at Thursday Island hospital. This is to serve the needs, in particular, of people who are travelling from Papua New Guinea to Australia, potentially with tuberculosis, to be diagnosed quickly. That is absolutely essential not only for their health but also for the health of Australians living on Saibai Island. The Queensland government has funded that service. You can imagine what an advantage it would be if we had these e-health type services in remote parts of Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory, Madam Acting Deputy President Crossin.

I return to the bill. As I said, the proposed start date for the accreditation scheme is 1 July 2008. This was postponed from 1 September 2007 after concerns were expressed by stakeholders. Labor remain concerned that the proposed scheme will not be ready to commence by July next year. The government has failed to provide sufficient detail about how this scheme will operate. The bill does not provide operational details of the proposed scheme such as the standards to be used, the names of the approved accreditors, the accreditation process and the period of accreditation. Rather, it simply allows the minister to establish, through a legislative instrument, the rules and operational details of the scheme. Whilst we recognise the sector’s support for the introduction of an accreditation scheme, we note that representatives of the diagnostic imaging sector have previously raised concerns relating to the operational details of the scheme. Labor share their concern that the full policy implications are yet to be announced.

Labor are also critical of the situation that full costings for the introduction of the accreditation scheme are yet to be determined. According to the explanatory memorandum for the bill, the introduction of the accreditation scheme will require enhancements to Medicare’s processing systems. These costs have not yet been quantified, but they are estimated to be $1.2 million based on previous similar policies. According to the explanatory memorandum, full costings will be provided when the subordinate legislation is developed. It is expected that these costs will be funded from existing budgetary measures for the provision of diagnostic imaging services. This lack of detail is typical of the Howard government’s shabby approach to health in particular. It is a government that is tired and out of touch. Unfortunately, lack of preparation, lack of detail and lack of interest are consistent features of the Minister for Health and Ageing’s approach to legislation and the health portfolio more generally. We hope that the government allocates the requisite resources to get this accreditation process sorted out and off the ground in time for the 1 July deadline. We look forward to receiving more detail in due course.