Dr LIM - 1998-10-14
I have always viewed an emergency medical service, especially an after-hours one, as essential for any community. In my previous life as a general medical practitioner, I endeavoured to provide one. It seems to me that the Darwin Private Hospital has all but closed its emergency medical service. Can the minister shed some light of what is happening with that facility, and what impact it is having on Royal Darwin Hospital?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in a sentence, the erratic operating times of the emergency centre at Darwin Private Hospital, coupled with the low occupancy rates at that hospital, indicate a malaise, in my mind, in the management of that particular centre. The Darwin Private Hospital claims that the problem is attracting a permanent doctor for its emergency department, and it frequently has to close that particular department. I noted that Darwin Private Hospital general manager, Ann Cassidy, on Fred McCue’s program last week, blamed most of the issue of provider numbers on the problem, and also said that they were looking at a whole range of different models in order to run the emergency medical centre. She also said, and this is what concerned me, that, with regards to weekend staff: ‘Unfortunately the problem has also extended to the Royal Darwin Hospital, as they are unable to provide us with medical staff who have access to a provider number’.
Now, I would like to put something clearly on the record. It is not the Royal Darwin Hospital’s responsibility to staff Darwin Private Hospital. Also, there was no formal arrangement between these 2 hospitals, but we try to cooperate as much as possible. In that regard, Royal Darwin has offered to provide doctors on weekends from 8 am to midnight, but it has not been able to provide full cover for the whole period of the weekends. Unfortunately, Darwin Private Hospital has not accepted this offer and requires either full cover or nothing.
I have to say I am somewhat disappointed, to say the least, in Mrs Cassidy’s remarks and by Darwin Private Hospital’s efforts so far. It is ideally co-located with Royal Darwin Hospital, an enviable position in anyone’s estimates and it should be exploiting the advantages that that co-location provides. It’s also astounding, to my mind, that the only private hospital in the Northern Territory should at times be less than 50% occupied.
The other issue I think is worth noting is that that hospital does not provide a round-the-clock medical cover to look after in-patients but is, at the moment, resorting to advertisements that suggest to doctors that if they want to make money they can make extra money by sleeping over at that hospital. What this does is that specialists then have no confidence in the hospital and prefer to admit their private patients to Royal Darwin where they are provided with full cover rather than to Darwin Private, hence the low occupancy rates. I would emphasise to that management that they are either in the hospital business or they are not. The emergency department issue is not new. It is more than provider numbers, it is poor recruitment, no retention and no attention to salary standards.
I might add, for the record, that in the recent period the staff at Royal Darwin Hospital in terms of doctors has gone from 90 to 140.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in a sentence, the erratic operating times of the emergency centre at Darwin Private Hospital, coupled with the low occupancy rates at that hospital, indicate a malaise, in my mind, in the management of that particular centre. The Darwin Private Hospital claims that the problem is attracting a permanent doctor for its emergency department, and it frequently has to close that particular department. I noted that Darwin Private Hospital general manager, Ann Cassidy, on Fred McCue’s program last week, blamed most of the issue of provider numbers on the problem, and also said that they were looking at a whole range of different models in order to run the emergency medical centre. She also said, and this is what concerned me, that, with regards to weekend staff: ‘Unfortunately the problem has also extended to the Royal Darwin Hospital, as they are unable to provide us with medical staff who have access to a provider number’.
Now, I would like to put something clearly on the record. It is not the Royal Darwin Hospital’s responsibility to staff Darwin Private Hospital. Also, there was no formal arrangement between these 2 hospitals, but we try to cooperate as much as possible. In that regard, Royal Darwin has offered to provide doctors on weekends from 8 am to midnight, but it has not been able to provide full cover for the whole period of the weekends. Unfortunately, Darwin Private Hospital has not accepted this offer and requires either full cover or nothing.
I have to say I am somewhat disappointed, to say the least, in Mrs Cassidy’s remarks and by Darwin Private Hospital’s efforts so far. It is ideally co-located with Royal Darwin Hospital, an enviable position in anyone’s estimates and it should be exploiting the advantages that that co-location provides. It’s also astounding, to my mind, that the only private hospital in the Northern Territory should at times be less than 50% occupied.
The other issue I think is worth noting is that that hospital does not provide a round-the-clock medical cover to look after in-patients but is, at the moment, resorting to advertisements that suggest to doctors that if they want to make money they can make extra money by sleeping over at that hospital. What this does is that specialists then have no confidence in the hospital and prefer to admit their private patients to Royal Darwin where they are provided with full cover rather than to Darwin Private, hence the low occupancy rates. I would emphasise to that management that they are either in the hospital business or they are not. The emergency department issue is not new. It is more than provider numbers, it is poor recruitment, no retention and no attention to salary standards.
I might add, for the record, that in the recent period the staff at Royal Darwin Hospital in terms of doctors has gone from 90 to 140.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016