Page 532 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 March 2023
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Ms Lawder: Point of order under standing order 117. The minister is now debating the question rather than answering. Who did she seek advice from and when?
MR ACTING SPEAKER: I am not sure that the minister is debating. There is no point of order. Minister, you have 18 seconds left. Or will we move on to the supplementary?
MS DAVIDSON: I am happy to move on
MS LEE: Minister, why do you persist in hiding every detail of these serious breaches of trust and safety when the community, including those whose privacy has been breached, needs reassurance?
MS DAVIDSON: Thank you. I am really glad she is talking about the importance of the privacy of those people who are affected personally by this breach. It is really important that they are able to have as many conversations as it takes with CHS to understand how this impacts on their health care and lives, and what can be done to protect them. They deserve to have external investigators work through proper processes free from political commentary.
This is about the health care of people who are at risk in our community. Everything we do should be about what is best for the individuals involved, and that is exactly what we are doing. I will not be discussing the details of external investigations that are underway.
MR COCKS: Minister, what else are you hiding about these serious breaches of community trust?
MS DAVIDSON: If we are going to talk about trust, what I would like to talk about is the amount of trust I have in our healthcare workers, because these privacy breaches we are talking about involve a handful of people in one mental health team, and I have been assured by CHS that those workers are no longer in a position to engage in that behaviour. I know that our healthcare workers are there because they want to support people to get well and to stay well, and they know how important patient privacy is.
I have shared with you everything I am able to that is not the subject of those internal and external investigations. As we have discussed before, Mr Cocks, when you brought this up in December of last year—when there is a police investigation underway, it is really important they are able to do their job without political commentary.
Canberra Hospital—Fetal Medicine Unit accreditation
MS CASTLEY: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, the Fetal and Maternal Medicine Unit had its accreditation suspended due to a lack of subspecialists able to perform their regular duties and train staff. On 12 January you advised that mitigation strategies have been implemented to enable continuation of the service. The opposition have heard that another subspecialist has recently left the unit. Can you confirm if any additional subspecialists have indeed left the fetal medicine unit in the past few weeks?
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