Mr RIOLI - 1998-08-11
Six months ago, a senior official of the minister’s department warned that patients’ lives were at risk because old and faulty equipment is being used to conduct dialysis procedures. Have any Territorians had their life or health put at risk because of substandard equipment?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I have no knowledge of the statement to which the honourable member refers. The matter has not appeared before me in any brief, but I am happy to investigate it.
What I can say is that staff who work for Territory Health Services, valued though they are in their work effort, do not speak on behalf of me or the department in terms of what should or should not be done and what sort of equipment should or should not be in place. I have said on many occasions in this House that Territory Health Services’ efforts in providing haemodialysis equipment and our approach to dealing with end-stage renal failure, by any assessment in any jurisdiction, can only be considered to be absolutely excellent. At Cairns Base Hospital, for example, the first option in the case of end-stage renal failure is CAPD treatment. It is only when CAPD treatment fails that people eventually go on to haemodialysis.
In the Northern Territory, our spending on haemodialysis has risen exponentially over the term in which we have addressed the subject. Something like $9m a year is being spent on those efforts now. In all of my inspections, the ratio of staff to patients has been superb and the standard of equipment has been superb. I am interested in the honourable member’s comments and I undertake to investigate them further, but on the face of it, they appear to have no substance.
Mr RIOLI: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. In response to that answer, I seek leave to table a copy of a memorandum which spells out the risk Territorians are being exposed to by the use of substandard equipment. It states: ‘It is only a matter of time before a more astute patient will recognise the full legal implications involved with using substandard equipment’.
Leave granted.
Mr RIOLI: Can the minister explain why he is exposing Territory taxpayers to costly litigation while allowing life-threatening equipment to be used?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I have no knowledge of the statement to which the honourable member refers. The matter has not appeared before me in any brief, but I am happy to investigate it.
What I can say is that staff who work for Territory Health Services, valued though they are in their work effort, do not speak on behalf of me or the department in terms of what should or should not be done and what sort of equipment should or should not be in place. I have said on many occasions in this House that Territory Health Services’ efforts in providing haemodialysis equipment and our approach to dealing with end-stage renal failure, by any assessment in any jurisdiction, can only be considered to be absolutely excellent. At Cairns Base Hospital, for example, the first option in the case of end-stage renal failure is CAPD treatment. It is only when CAPD treatment fails that people eventually go on to haemodialysis.
In the Northern Territory, our spending on haemodialysis has risen exponentially over the term in which we have addressed the subject. Something like $9m a year is being spent on those efforts now. In all of my inspections, the ratio of staff to patients has been superb and the standard of equipment has been superb. I am interested in the honourable member’s comments and I undertake to investigate them further, but on the face of it, they appear to have no substance.
Mr RIOLI: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. In response to that answer, I seek leave to table a copy of a memorandum which spells out the risk Territorians are being exposed to by the use of substandard equipment. It states: ‘It is only a matter of time before a more astute patient will recognise the full legal implications involved with using substandard equipment’.
Leave granted.
Mr RIOLI: Can the minister explain why he is exposing Territory taxpayers to costly litigation while allowing life-threatening equipment to be used?
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016