Mr HENDERSON - 1999-10-19
I have here a damning indictment which spells out the failure of the CLP government to properly resource and maintain the accident and emergency department at Royal Darwin Hospital. This document goes to the government’s failure to properly staff the department, its failure to provide decent equipment, the appalling physical layout of the facility and the risk to patient care, privacy and dignity. I seek leave to table the document.
Leave granted.
A member: What is it?
Mr HENDERSON: A letter. Dr David Green, specialist in emergency medicine, said in February this year:
The current lack of space leads to this degrading lack of privacy and dignity on a daily basis. It seems to be established practice that patients are seen and treated in corridors. Every day I have seen suturing, drainage of abscesses ...
Mr PALMER: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The member cannot make speeches in relation to questions. He should get to his feet and ask the question.
Mr SPEAKER: I don’t think there is a point of order at this stage, but I ask the member for Wanguri to wind up the question as quickly as possible.
Mr HENDERSON: Nearly there.
Every day I have seen suturing, drainage of abscesses and other procedures take place in open corridors. On many occasions patients with pus-filled wounds are treated in general utility beds as there is no procedure room for this.
Minister, doesn’t this appalling situation go to the very heart of your failure to deliver on the basics for Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I won’t answer on the detail of Dr Green’s report until I see it, because we have a shameful record in this House of Labor producing documents and selectively quoting from them.
I have met Dr David Green and spoken to him at some length about the problems of the accident and emergency department at Royal Darwin. It is an issue that does deserve some solutions. We’ve come up with several million dollars’ worth of solutions. It is in the budget. I am aware that the member for Wanguri was not here when the budget was debated, but his colleagues, whom he should seek some counsel from, would be able to tell him that this government has moved to build a state-of-the-art accident and emergency centre on the campus at Royal Darwin Hospital. We have discussed that with staff at some length and it is very common knowledge that the new accident and emergency department will address some of the problems that are in the current department.
What the Labor Party is trying to do here is run a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘We asked the government was it fixing up the problems and blow me down, it did’. Well, I can tell you it happened long before you came here. We knew there were some problems with the accident and emergency department. We’ve move quickly to address those.
Mr Stirling: You promised to 3 years ago.
Mr DUNHAM: We promised 3 years ago? I can tell the House about the stresses in that particular department. There are something like 180 000 occasions a year of outpatient care at Royal Darwin. The hospital budget over the last 3 years has gone up $33m. This is not an indicator of government that is not addressing some of the problems that are out there.
We are talking about 5 categories of emergency medicine in that centre, and Royal Darwin Hospital is well above national benchmarks in 4 of them. We know that we are under in the other one. We know that we’ve still got some work to do with category 2, but I can assure Territorians that those people who attend Royal Darwin Hospital and need immediate medical treatment get it. The accident and emergency department is fully accredited, which is a rarity around Australia. We have an accredited, hardworking emergency department, funded by this government, which will in the near future be replaced by this government under a program costing some $8m.
I know accident and emergency at Royal Darwin is not a very pleasant place to sit waiting, but that’s the way of hospitals. The matters relating to people who attend there are matters to do with stress and crisis and acute illness. Among the many staff who work there are 2 fully-accredited emergency specialists. Five years ago we had none. We have 18 doctors on roster and 35 nurses. Benchmarking that against probably any other hospital in Australia shows that we are very well equipped in terms of our human resources.
Yes, the physical resource needs replacing. And yes, we will do it.
Leave granted.
A member: What is it?
Mr HENDERSON: A letter. Dr David Green, specialist in emergency medicine, said in February this year:
The current lack of space leads to this degrading lack of privacy and dignity on a daily basis. It seems to be established practice that patients are seen and treated in corridors. Every day I have seen suturing, drainage of abscesses ...
Mr PALMER: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The member cannot make speeches in relation to questions. He should get to his feet and ask the question.
Mr SPEAKER: I don’t think there is a point of order at this stage, but I ask the member for Wanguri to wind up the question as quickly as possible.
Mr HENDERSON: Nearly there.
Every day I have seen suturing, drainage of abscesses and other procedures take place in open corridors. On many occasions patients with pus-filled wounds are treated in general utility beds as there is no procedure room for this.
Minister, doesn’t this appalling situation go to the very heart of your failure to deliver on the basics for Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I won’t answer on the detail of Dr Green’s report until I see it, because we have a shameful record in this House of Labor producing documents and selectively quoting from them.
I have met Dr David Green and spoken to him at some length about the problems of the accident and emergency department at Royal Darwin. It is an issue that does deserve some solutions. We’ve come up with several million dollars’ worth of solutions. It is in the budget. I am aware that the member for Wanguri was not here when the budget was debated, but his colleagues, whom he should seek some counsel from, would be able to tell him that this government has moved to build a state-of-the-art accident and emergency centre on the campus at Royal Darwin Hospital. We have discussed that with staff at some length and it is very common knowledge that the new accident and emergency department will address some of the problems that are in the current department.
What the Labor Party is trying to do here is run a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘We asked the government was it fixing up the problems and blow me down, it did’. Well, I can tell you it happened long before you came here. We knew there were some problems with the accident and emergency department. We’ve move quickly to address those.
Mr Stirling: You promised to 3 years ago.
Mr DUNHAM: We promised 3 years ago? I can tell the House about the stresses in that particular department. There are something like 180 000 occasions a year of outpatient care at Royal Darwin. The hospital budget over the last 3 years has gone up $33m. This is not an indicator of government that is not addressing some of the problems that are out there.
We are talking about 5 categories of emergency medicine in that centre, and Royal Darwin Hospital is well above national benchmarks in 4 of them. We know that we are under in the other one. We know that we’ve still got some work to do with category 2, but I can assure Territorians that those people who attend Royal Darwin Hospital and need immediate medical treatment get it. The accident and emergency department is fully accredited, which is a rarity around Australia. We have an accredited, hardworking emergency department, funded by this government, which will in the near future be replaced by this government under a program costing some $8m.
I know accident and emergency at Royal Darwin is not a very pleasant place to sit waiting, but that’s the way of hospitals. The matters relating to people who attend there are matters to do with stress and crisis and acute illness. Among the many staff who work there are 2 fully-accredited emergency specialists. Five years ago we had none. We have 18 doctors on roster and 35 nurses. Benchmarking that against probably any other hospital in Australia shows that we are very well equipped in terms of our human resources.
Yes, the physical resource needs replacing. And yes, we will do it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016