Mr Andrew Wilkie MP – 3 Minute Statement – 11 Oct 11
Mr Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity to highlight the dire situation facing many of my constituents, and indeed all Tasmanians who rely on the public health system and who no longer have faith in their State Government.
The Labor/Green Government in Tasmania has recently announced it will cut the budget for elective surgery reportedly to the tune of $21.6 million. Moreover the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has added that the State could lose millions in federal funding if it does not meet elective surgery targets.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the waiting list for elective surgery in Tasmania is some 7,700 people and rising. With this list including operations such as hip and knee replacements, would-be patients are often rendered immobile and left in chronic pain, sometimes to wait years for assistance. Now they will have to wait longer.
It is no wonder many people give up work or develop an addiction to prescription pain medication – a sorry side-effect of waiting lists which stretch beyond hope, and an indictment of a State Government which has virtually abandoned its fundamental responsibility for public health care.
And all this against the backdrop of other unacceptable waiting lists which are literally killing people waiting for surgery.
Mr Deputy Speaker, no Australian government should default to cutting frontline health services just because their budget is in a hole. To do so demonstrates financial mismanagement, public health policy incompetence and a complete misunderstanding of the public interest. Moreover it shows no concern for the hundreds of health and admin professionals set to lose their jobs or being in fear of doing so.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I’m proud to have secured $340 million towards the rebuilding of the Royal Hobart Hospital. And it is now beyond belief that, in light of the imminent improvement to infrastructure, the Tasmanian Labor/Greens Government is so quick to dodge intelligent budgetary restructuring and instead to go straight to cutting services.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Tasmanian Government’s approach to managing its self-inflicted budget black-hole is cause for us to consider alternatives to the current arrangement. It is more evidence that eventually the Federal Government must take an even greater role in public health care and inevitably take over the national public hospital system entirely.
Mr Deputy Speaker, despite the Tasmanian Government’s efforts there is no way to make the situation in my home state look pretty. Years of financial mismanagement and policy incompetence, premier after premier, treasurer after treasurer, health minister after health minister have let us down and now the sick and most disadvantaged members of the community are set to pay the price. This was avoidable and now is unforgivable. I condemn the lot of them on this matter.
Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.
Andrew Wilkie’s criticisms - among many observations on national, state and local politics, were first made at the Inaugural Tasmanian Times lecture last Thursday: HERE ... but not followed by any Tasmanian media, despite the presence in the audience of one Editor ...
• Michelle O’Byrne: Yet Another Hollow Wilkie Diatribe
The Minister for Health, Michelle O Byrne, said today s comments from Andrew Wilkie were yet another hollow diatribe which fails to take into account any of the facts.
The fact is that the budget for hospital and ambulance services has increased by 7.9 per cent from last year s budget, Ms O Byrne said.
The overall Department of Health and Human Services budget for 2011-12 is $1.844 billion, a 5.1 per cent increase from last year, and this doesn t include the $135 million we are spending on infrastructure this year.
To suggest we are abandoning our responsibility to provide public health is simply wrong.
The cuts that have been made are to address not only the short term budget challenge, but the long term effects of unrelenting health inflation.
If we were to do nothing in response to these challenges, as Mr Wilkie appears to be advocating, health would consume the entire State Budget within 10 15 years, leaving nothing left to pay for other core services.
It is easy for Mr Wilkie to throw stones when he is divorced from reality and responsibility.
What he should be doing is standing up for Tasmania and lobbying to ensure that the state is not penalised for taking responsible action to manage its budget in response to a massive shortfall in GST receipts.
I have invited Mr Wilkie to a briefing on the health savings measures so that he can understand the pressures we are facing and the measures we have put in place to maximise patient care.
I hope that he takes up my offer in good faith.
• ABC Online: No Confidence in Michelle O’Byrne
About 150 nurses at the Royal Hobart Hospital have passed a vote of no confidence in the Health Minister and the State Government over savage health budget cuts.
The Nursing Federation says hospital management has confirmed 50 jobs will be cut at the Royal, including doctors, nurses and support staff.
The state’s biggest hospital is closing 24 surgery beds within six weeks as it merges two surgical wards into one containing 40 beds.
The Nursing Federation’s Neroli Ellis says that leaves only 87 surgical and acute medical beds.
“We are going to be moving wards, we are going to be closing beds, closing theatres, we are going to be changing the way we work, we are going to be losing career pathways,” she said.
“But more importantly we know people are going to have to wait for hours if not days to try to get a bed at the Royal now.”
First published: 2011-10-13 10:07 AM
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