Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to make some comments in relation to the Community Affairs References Committee report, Palliative care in Australia

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What number?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Committee report No. 14 on today's Notice Paper. I just want to speak again, briefly, in relation to palliative care and the way our communities are changing. Our communities are not only demanding but deserve to have more options when it comes to palliative care, whether that is in an aged-care home or in an individual's home, or whether or not they have access to a hospice so that they can take that journey of the end of life in surroundings they want and with access to people that they want to spend those times with. I think there is still so much more that could be done.

We do health pretty well in this country. We do palliative care very well in this country. But I think there is more that could be done.

It was rather disappointing during the federal election campaign in Tasmania—again, in the seat of Bass where I have some responsibility, which covers the north-east of Tasmania. We were fortunate enough to be able to make an election commitment to support the Northern Hospice campaign to have a stand-alone, ground-floor hospice with 10 beds in Launceston. The hospice committee, under the leadership of Barb Baker, have been campaigning for that for in excess of 10 years, after a facility closed in Launceston. Although there are four public beds available in Launceston, they are not on the ground floor. Although you are made to feel very welcome in the hospital that provides those four beds, I have to say: it is not the sort of environment that I would choose if I needed to have that palliative care. Certainly the community has expressed to me the reason I am such a strong advocate for a northern hospice: so that families have access 24 hours a day. Also, if you have it on the ground floor, you can have a garden. Families can come. They can share stories and that special time together, having a barbecue and feeling that it is more of a home situation.

Recently I was at a meeting to listen to the state Liberal minister's plan for health in Tasmania, and there were a number of people there who were asking questions about where the state government stood in relation to providing those services that are needed in the north of the state. It is unfortunate. At the last state election they did commit money and they have actually delivered on that commitment to have a look at whether or not a stand-alone, 10-bed hospice was warranted in the north of the state. In that report that was handed down and that the state Liberal government adopted they did not at any time give proper consideration to the impact on accident and emergency and at the acute hospital. Really, if you need palliative care, the last place you want to be is in an acute hospital. So, even though they funded that report and although there is still a very strong movement in the north of the state to have this hospice, we were not able to get the Liberal government during the federal election to match the funding that we committed so that northern Tasmanians could have this hospice.

Now, it is the last place you want to be—there is no doubt about that—but, as one of the women in the audience said, she was alone when she was looking after her husband. Trying to coordinate the services that are available to give that care at home was fairly difficult. I know there have been moves to change that and spoke about that earlier this week. But she said: 'The issue will become for me even greater because at least I was able to help with my husband and he was able to stay at home. But I have no family, so if I am in that same situation where I am going to need palliative care then I won't be able to stay in my own home.' So she would like to be able to go into a hospice where, as I said, it is on the ground floor, you have a garden and you have an area where family can come and go without being in an acute hospital.

There were a number of other contributions that night. So it is still very much an issue, and I sincerely hope that the government will take heed of this report, because it is extremely important.

And we have to remember palliative care is not just for older people. Unfortunately, there are too many children who have to have palliative care. Palliative care and the hospices that I have visited around the country can make such a huge difference, particularly in those last few days. When I was in Queensland a couple of years ago, I visited this wonderful hospice up there. It was quite ironic to go and see what they were doing, because they not only cared for those people and gave them palliative care but also ran counselling sessions for the families. They did things with the children so that they would understand the process that was happening with their mother or their father—their loved ones. It was an interesting story.

There was a lady there who had been in extreme pain and was suffering, but the one thing she wanted to do was to have contact with her son. It just so happened that he was in Risdon Prison Complex in Tasmania. I have a great deal of respect for the prison to have taken the action that they did in allowing her to have videoconferencing with Skype to say the things that she wanted to say to her son. I give full credit to the prison for allowing that to happen because of those people who had been caring for her. The way they spoke about how it had changed her last few days before the passed away is what hospices are all about. That not only was a benefit for her but was obviously a great benefit for her son, who was not able to see her or even to be at her funeral. So again they allowed him to participate via Skype.

Those sorts of actions can make a great deal of difference to somebody who is going through those final days, but we all know that palliative care can go on for month after month after month, and those people who deliver that palliative care have the utmost respect, I know, from all of us and particularly from those families that use those services. But I do stress and urge this government to consider funding for the northern hospice project that has been put before them. Before the previous election in 2013, they were supportive of the hospice. Both the incumbent Labor member and then the Liberal candidate at that time who became the member for Bass supported the hospice. The current Minister for Health in Tasmania before he was elected to government supported the northern hospice.

Economies, bureaucrats and dollars should not determine the sort of society that we live in. Sometimes governments have to do the right thing and provide the community with the things that they need. As far as I am concerned, we deserve nothing less than a world-class palliative care system in this country, and I urge this government to look again. I know that we have four Liberal senators from my home state and I have no doubt they have the same passion and commitment to people who need those services, so I ask them again to look at this project and to give the support that is needed in northern Tasmania to ensure that this hospice project comes to fruition.