Mr BELL - 1995-10-17
My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health and Community Services. My apologies, in order to privatise the organisation, he has retitled himself Minister for Health Services. This question is particularly apposite in that regard. Is the minister aware that he and his department are putting people's lives at risk at Wadeye because of the refusal to provide pharmaceutical supplies? Specifically, is he aware that the refusal to provide Enalapril to treat the blood pressure of people at Wadeye will contribute to renal failure in that community, as was highlighted on last night's 7.30 Report item in relation to Bathurst Island?
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Finally, will the minister direct the pharmacy at Royal Darwin Hospital to provide immediately the pharmaceuticals necessary at Wadeye?
ANSWER
Before answering the question, I remind the member for MacDonnell, in response to his very cutting comment about the renaming of the department, that that was a departmental initiative. I support the department's desire to promote a more positive and appropriate image. If he wants to denigrate the department's change of title, he is denigrating those hard-working officers.
Over the last few weeks, the department has brought to my notice a number of concerns about the arrangements at the health centre at Port Keats, or Wadeye. In fact, I understand that they were raised with members of the PAC during their visit there last Friday. In regard to those concerns ...
Mr Bailey: That may be a breach of privilege.
Mr FINCH: No. Let me explain how I know about such matters. The doctor at Port Keats, who had gone off at what I believe was a political tangent, was critical and asked that a message be relayed to me that I had failed to answer correspondence from the community. The fact is that I received yesterday the correspondence that she waved at members of the committee. I not have thought that exactly the most appropriate approach for a medical professional to take. I would have thought that the sister, who had been crying out for some ...
Mr Ede: It takes over 10 days for mail to travel from Port Keats to your office?
Mr FINCH: It might have been typed in as ...
Mr Ede: That was the second letter.
Mr FINCH: No, it was the first. There was only one letter. That one and only letter, dated 6 October, arrived at my office yesterday. I am not responsible for where and how people post mail. Nevertheless, it is a little unprofessional for a doctor to have been bitching and whingeing last Friday about my not having answered a letter that I had not received.
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I asked the minister a very specific question about the urgent need for medical supplies which are being denied by his department to people at Wadeye. If he wants to get up and make a statement about representations from the doctor employed there, he is most welcome to do that but I suggest that, to remain within standing orders, he should answer the question about his department's refusal to provide urgently-required medical supplies.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The minister was responding to an interjection. I ask the minister to come to the point of his answer as quickly as possible.
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Mr FINCH: I can only assume that the supply of pharmaceuticals fits within the remainder of the delivery of health services in Port Keats. I will assume that for the time being and, if I am advised differently later, I will give the member an update.
The Port Keats Health Centre is an independent, non-government health centre. This year, it receives increased funding to the tune of almost $1m. That increase on the previous year's funding is to provide that comprehensive service, employing ...
Mr Ede: You have not given them the funding ...
Mr FINCH: ... theoretically 15 personnel despite the fact that it is funded ...
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr FINCH: Hear me out!
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr FINCH: You are the champion of the doctor there.
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: No. In fact, the department will not be sending the cheque for the second quarter of this financial year. You ask why?
Mr Ede: Because you do not care about health.
Mr FINCH: Why would that be? The department has tried to set up an appropriate non-government service at Wadeye. It was the department's wish to ensure that the community would not only be able to deliver the service in the way that it wants to , but would also to take a little responsibility in delivering it. Part of that responsibility is acquitting previous funds. Despite the best and repeated efforts of departmental officers, Wadeye has not been able to acquit the funds provided earlier this year.
Mr Ede: It is with the auditors.
Mr FINCH: The department is sending out one of its administrative ...
Mr Bailey: Thus, you will put lives at risk to hold onto the money?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Who is putting lives at risk? If there has been an over-expenditure of funds - and I remind the member that these were increased funds ...
Mr Bailey: We are into the second quarter.
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Mr FINCH: Hear me out!
Mr Bailey: We are into the second quarter.
Mr FINCH: Thank goodness you are out of the high school system because people like the students from Kormilda College, who are in the gallery here today, do not need to put up with your sort of carry-on.
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I suggest the minister be asked to withdraw that. If he wants to make comments of that kind about people on this side of the House, he should do so by way of a substantive motion. It is thoroughly unreasonable to reflect on a member's professional competence in that way.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to withdraw any inference about the member's conduct.
Mr Poole interjecting.
Mr Bell: There are a few of your blokes we could serve it up to, don't you worry, Eric.
Mr FINCH: I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
Mr Bell: Not the least being your Chief Minister.
Mr FINCH: Let me say that the member's absurd, nonsensical empty-minded interjections do him no good at all in this forum or in any other.
To complete my answer, despite repeated requests for the acquittal of funds, and despite the fact that, in the clinic, they have been 4 people short ...
Mr Stirling: What is the local member doing about this. Does he intend to give them a hand?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister is attempting to answer the question.
Mr FINCH: It is a very serious matter and, unfortunately this is not the only health centre that is in the same boat.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: No, it is not. If they have funds to provide health workers, they do not provide those health workers and yet still they overspend. One has to ask what has happened to the money and what they have done for the people in their communities.
It is the department that should be going crook in this instance. It has offered to provide administrative support. In fact, it went out of its way to persuade one nurse to leave the role she was fulfilling in Darwin community health to provide some initial support there. However, in the meantime, some questions have to be answered. For example, where has the money
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gone? If we know that, we will know where the responsibility lies. As for medications, there are alternatives ...
Mr Ede: What alternatives?
Mr FINCH: That $1m per year is intended to provide the medications needed.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: I do not believe that the member went to Port Keats. He is delivering someone else's message here. He ought to obtain the full picture before he comes in here crowing about what this government is or is not doing to provide health services. I will stand behind the department on this issue because, the health service at Port Keats has quite clearly a responsibility to get its act together. It has been offered plenty of support, and increased funds, with which to do that.
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Page 876
Finally, will the minister direct the pharmacy at Royal Darwin Hospital to provide immediately the pharmaceuticals necessary at Wadeye?
ANSWER
Before answering the question, I remind the member for MacDonnell, in response to his very cutting comment about the renaming of the department, that that was a departmental initiative. I support the department's desire to promote a more positive and appropriate image. If he wants to denigrate the department's change of title, he is denigrating those hard-working officers.
Over the last few weeks, the department has brought to my notice a number of concerns about the arrangements at the health centre at Port Keats, or Wadeye. In fact, I understand that they were raised with members of the PAC during their visit there last Friday. In regard to those concerns ...
Mr Bailey: That may be a breach of privilege.
Mr FINCH: No. Let me explain how I know about such matters. The doctor at Port Keats, who had gone off at what I believe was a political tangent, was critical and asked that a message be relayed to me that I had failed to answer correspondence from the community. The fact is that I received yesterday the correspondence that she waved at members of the committee. I not have thought that exactly the most appropriate approach for a medical professional to take. I would have thought that the sister, who had been crying out for some ...
Mr Ede: It takes over 10 days for mail to travel from Port Keats to your office?
Mr FINCH: It might have been typed in as ...
Mr Ede: That was the second letter.
Mr FINCH: No, it was the first. There was only one letter. That one and only letter, dated 6 October, arrived at my office yesterday. I am not responsible for where and how people post mail. Nevertheless, it is a little unprofessional for a doctor to have been bitching and whingeing last Friday about my not having answered a letter that I had not received.
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I asked the minister a very specific question about the urgent need for medical supplies which are being denied by his department to people at Wadeye. If he wants to get up and make a statement about representations from the doctor employed there, he is most welcome to do that but I suggest that, to remain within standing orders, he should answer the question about his department's refusal to provide urgently-required medical supplies.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The minister was responding to an interjection. I ask the minister to come to the point of his answer as quickly as possible.
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Mr FINCH: I can only assume that the supply of pharmaceuticals fits within the remainder of the delivery of health services in Port Keats. I will assume that for the time being and, if I am advised differently later, I will give the member an update.
The Port Keats Health Centre is an independent, non-government health centre. This year, it receives increased funding to the tune of almost $1m. That increase on the previous year's funding is to provide that comprehensive service, employing ...
Mr Ede: You have not given them the funding ...
Mr FINCH: ... theoretically 15 personnel despite the fact that it is funded ...
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr FINCH: Hear me out!
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr FINCH: You are the champion of the doctor there.
Mr Ede: You have not sent the cheque!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: No. In fact, the department will not be sending the cheque for the second quarter of this financial year. You ask why?
Mr Ede: Because you do not care about health.
Mr FINCH: Why would that be? The department has tried to set up an appropriate non-government service at Wadeye. It was the department's wish to ensure that the community would not only be able to deliver the service in the way that it wants to , but would also to take a little responsibility in delivering it. Part of that responsibility is acquitting previous funds. Despite the best and repeated efforts of departmental officers, Wadeye has not been able to acquit the funds provided earlier this year.
Mr Ede: It is with the auditors.
Mr FINCH: The department is sending out one of its administrative ...
Mr Bailey: Thus, you will put lives at risk to hold onto the money?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Who is putting lives at risk? If there has been an over-expenditure of funds - and I remind the member that these were increased funds ...
Mr Bailey: We are into the second quarter.
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Mr FINCH: Hear me out!
Mr Bailey: We are into the second quarter.
Mr FINCH: Thank goodness you are out of the high school system because people like the students from Kormilda College, who are in the gallery here today, do not need to put up with your sort of carry-on.
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I suggest the minister be asked to withdraw that. If he wants to make comments of that kind about people on this side of the House, he should do so by way of a substantive motion. It is thoroughly unreasonable to reflect on a member's professional competence in that way.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to withdraw any inference about the member's conduct.
Mr Poole interjecting.
Mr Bell: There are a few of your blokes we could serve it up to, don't you worry, Eric.
Mr FINCH: I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
Mr Bell: Not the least being your Chief Minister.
Mr FINCH: Let me say that the member's absurd, nonsensical empty-minded interjections do him no good at all in this forum or in any other.
To complete my answer, despite repeated requests for the acquittal of funds, and despite the fact that, in the clinic, they have been 4 people short ...
Mr Stirling: What is the local member doing about this. Does he intend to give them a hand?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister is attempting to answer the question.
Mr FINCH: It is a very serious matter and, unfortunately this is not the only health centre that is in the same boat.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: No, it is not. If they have funds to provide health workers, they do not provide those health workers and yet still they overspend. One has to ask what has happened to the money and what they have done for the people in their communities.
It is the department that should be going crook in this instance. It has offered to provide administrative support. In fact, it went out of its way to persuade one nurse to leave the role she was fulfilling in Darwin community health to provide some initial support there. However, in the meantime, some questions have to be answered. For example, where has the money
Page 879
gone? If we know that, we will know where the responsibility lies. As for medications, there are alternatives ...
Mr Ede: What alternatives?
Mr FINCH: That $1m per year is intended to provide the medications needed.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: I do not believe that the member went to Port Keats. He is delivering someone else's message here. He ought to obtain the full picture before he comes in here crowing about what this government is or is not doing to provide health services. I will stand behind the department on this issue because, the health service at Port Keats has quite clearly a responsibility to get its act together. It has been offered plenty of support, and increased funds, with which to do that.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016