Page 3010 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
We do seek to tell people that there are other alternatives available. We cannot, under the Medicare agreement - nor would we ever want to - refuse to treat a person. There is an absolute right to be treated in answer to an emergency. It is a right that every citizen in this Territory, every Australian citizen, has in our hospital system. We do say that if you have other than accident and emergency-type conditions, life threatening conditions, in many cases you would get quicker treatment at a GPs clinic. In recent years in Canberra, we have seen the advent of extended hours, 24-hour-style clinics. In most cases your family GP would be your best bet; but after hours there are extended hours, bulkbilling clinics, where no fee is charged. That is a very good alternative.
I actually met only last week here in Canberra with the General Practitioners Society in Australia and suggested to them that we would be very happy to cooperate with them in preparing some brochures or materials to have in the emergency departments at both Woden and Calvary, setting out the sorts of services that a GP can provide and convenient locations of GPs. We do have convenient locations of GPs listed at Woden, and I understand that Calvary does the same. We do say to people, "This is an option". But, as the quite extended piece in Saturday's Canberra Times mentioned, there is still something of a perception, "I pay my taxes; I have a right to treatment in casualty". You do and you will get that treatment; but it is not a first come, first served waiting list. The triage nurse does have to make a decision in every case as to who is more urgent. If you do present for a pregnancy test or with a cold or with a minor sprain, it is very likely that you will be asked to wait because the motor vehicle accident, the infarct, the arrest, will come through first.
Another point that I have made and that is often the basis of some letters of complaint is that if you are at the hospital with a sick child - I had a sick child, myself - you are obviously very worried. You see somebody wander in and apparently go straight through and you think, "I am obviously sicker than they are" or "My child is sicker than they are". In many cases, the person who goes straight through is somebody who walks in and says to the triage sister, "I have a chest pain". It may be indigestion, but it may not; it may be a heart attack. So, any persons with an indication of a heart condition go straight in.
Again, people often are not aware, as they are sitting in the waiting area of casualty at Woden Valley Hospital - because you do not come through the same entrance now, through the ambulance arrival point - that ambulances are coming in with trauma patients. You may think, "I have been waiting for two hours and there is nobody performing. Nobody else has come in. Why have I not been seen?". You are unaware that people are coming through the ambulance arrival point. We are trying to say to people, not that we will not treat them - because we will - but that the Emergency Department is for accident and emergency; that the general practitioners can provide a great range of services in this community; and that now in Canberra there is access 24 hours a day to bulkbilling GP practices where the citizen pays nothing for the service. We would encourage people to take that up.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .