Mrs HICKEY - 2001-06-07
My question concerns Territorians at the other end of the age spectrum. A recent Commonwealth Information Paper on Aged Care shows that 156 Territorians are on the waiting list for a nursing home bed. Many of them waiting in hospital beds across the Northern Territory. Despite a Commonwealth allocation of funding for 132 beds in the last two years, we will only see an additional 16 beds come on line toward the end of the year with the redevelopment of Chan Park. Yet again, this government has failed to deliver. Can the minister tell us how this year’s budget is going to help frail, aged Territorians and their families?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a good question to demonstrate potentially that the Labor Party has concern about frail, aged Territorians. Unfortunately, what it does yet again is demonstrate a gross lack of competence on this issue.
The member for Barkly calls on the Territory government to state what it is doing to assist aged Territorians get into nursing homes. As the health minister, I attended a meeting of all health ministers in Sydney only a couple of months ago, and this was indeed on the agenda. There is an issue around the nation with the difficulty in running nursing homes these days, and that is partly because the current federal government has such vigilance in making sure that the standards in nursing homes are of a high level.
So, what is happening is there are some people exiting, it has a high unit cost to enter this area, and it is an area that is going through some difficulties. All health ministers from around Australia talked to the federal health minister, and on the next occasion will also be talking to his colleague, Bronwyn Bishop, about this issue. It is colloquially called within acute services as ‘bed block’, where there are people who are inappropriately in our acute settings, who should more appropriately be in nursing homes. So it is an issue that is known to health ministers.
If you take the next step and say, ‘What are we doing about it?’, we do a lot. And given that this is a federal responsibility, it is certainly way above and beyond the call of duty. These are the people next to us who would parade out Grants Commission figures and say, ‘Aha! Look, there are some figures the Grants Commission has said that the Territory should be spending and you’re not’. The Grants Commission, you would probably find, says that the Commonwealth should be spending this money. Nevertheless, last year $5m was spent by this government in assisting the Uniting Church Frontier Services to build Terrace Gardens. Now, that money was necessary because we believed that the current Chan Park was inadequate. We believe that it should have gone to a different site with a different infrastructure. We provided land, we provided cash, we have assisted Uniting Church to set that up facility. it is underway at the Health Precinct in Palmerston and, in doing so, there will be some additional beds.
I was also very pleased to note the federal government has provided $1m towards that facility, and that is very important money because, under current Commonwealth funding guidelines, capital city nursing homes do not attract a grant to assist with capital. That of course presents a problem for us here in Darwin, which, notwithstanding our capital city status, still has some of the problems that the larger urban catchments in southern places would have. We would say that we are a capital city, but we are being unfairly treated on that particular basis.
We are continuing to involve ourselves in this. We are talking to several providers who are keen to come to the Northern Territory. All of them are asking us for assistance in some way, shape or form, and we have said we will consider that. We have never said to a new provider that this is so totally a Commonwealth responsibility that we are not going to be a player.
We have provided assistance to the Salvation Army’s facility in Mirambeena Street and that enabled them to extend on the last occasion. I know they are considering a further extension which should assist us. I know also that we provided assistance, and continue to provide assistance, to Tracy Lodge which is here in the centre of Darwin. It has not been an issue of this government being frugal about matters providing accommodation to those Territory residents who need nursing home accommodation.
Mr Henderson: How much did you supply to Juninga? None, zero!
Mr DUNHAM: It has been a matter of - I heard the zero word again, Mr Speaker. The moneys that we provide are substantial and run into millions, and that is notwithstanding that this is, in the main, totally a Commonwealth responsibility.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a good question to demonstrate potentially that the Labor Party has concern about frail, aged Territorians. Unfortunately, what it does yet again is demonstrate a gross lack of competence on this issue.
The member for Barkly calls on the Territory government to state what it is doing to assist aged Territorians get into nursing homes. As the health minister, I attended a meeting of all health ministers in Sydney only a couple of months ago, and this was indeed on the agenda. There is an issue around the nation with the difficulty in running nursing homes these days, and that is partly because the current federal government has such vigilance in making sure that the standards in nursing homes are of a high level.
So, what is happening is there are some people exiting, it has a high unit cost to enter this area, and it is an area that is going through some difficulties. All health ministers from around Australia talked to the federal health minister, and on the next occasion will also be talking to his colleague, Bronwyn Bishop, about this issue. It is colloquially called within acute services as ‘bed block’, where there are people who are inappropriately in our acute settings, who should more appropriately be in nursing homes. So it is an issue that is known to health ministers.
If you take the next step and say, ‘What are we doing about it?’, we do a lot. And given that this is a federal responsibility, it is certainly way above and beyond the call of duty. These are the people next to us who would parade out Grants Commission figures and say, ‘Aha! Look, there are some figures the Grants Commission has said that the Territory should be spending and you’re not’. The Grants Commission, you would probably find, says that the Commonwealth should be spending this money. Nevertheless, last year $5m was spent by this government in assisting the Uniting Church Frontier Services to build Terrace Gardens. Now, that money was necessary because we believed that the current Chan Park was inadequate. We believe that it should have gone to a different site with a different infrastructure. We provided land, we provided cash, we have assisted Uniting Church to set that up facility. it is underway at the Health Precinct in Palmerston and, in doing so, there will be some additional beds.
I was also very pleased to note the federal government has provided $1m towards that facility, and that is very important money because, under current Commonwealth funding guidelines, capital city nursing homes do not attract a grant to assist with capital. That of course presents a problem for us here in Darwin, which, notwithstanding our capital city status, still has some of the problems that the larger urban catchments in southern places would have. We would say that we are a capital city, but we are being unfairly treated on that particular basis.
We are continuing to involve ourselves in this. We are talking to several providers who are keen to come to the Northern Territory. All of them are asking us for assistance in some way, shape or form, and we have said we will consider that. We have never said to a new provider that this is so totally a Commonwealth responsibility that we are not going to be a player.
We have provided assistance to the Salvation Army’s facility in Mirambeena Street and that enabled them to extend on the last occasion. I know they are considering a further extension which should assist us. I know also that we provided assistance, and continue to provide assistance, to Tracy Lodge which is here in the centre of Darwin. It has not been an issue of this government being frugal about matters providing accommodation to those Territory residents who need nursing home accommodation.
Mr Henderson: How much did you supply to Juninga? None, zero!
Mr DUNHAM: It has been a matter of - I heard the zero word again, Mr Speaker. The moneys that we provide are substantial and run into millions, and that is notwithstanding that this is, in the main, totally a Commonwealth responsibility.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016