Page 2298 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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I am obliged to inform you that the ward cannot safely accommodate any additional patient/s and that at this time there is insufficient skilled and experienced nursing staff provided by management to competently meet the care needs and workload demands.
And never likely to be so, if nurses were running from ward to ward to get what they needed to do their job.
When the opposition drew attention to these alerts, the minister replied that none to date had been lodged—perhaps for a very good reason. The opposition then received concerning reports that nurses felt intimidated because they believed that management was monitoring them closely to see who put in forms. According to one nursing source, anyone who put in the form would be scrutinised for any minor misdemeanours, like taking biscuits from the patient area, which could be used against them as part of a disciplinary action. This was corroborated by ANF secretary Colleen Duff on the ABC’s Stateline program last week, on 24 August 2007, when she said:
If someone spoke about the system, they believe their employment would be jeopardized. That is why they come to the Federation.
The health minister and the Chief Minister maintained that the claims of hospital equipment shortages were baseless and, in an act of unconscionable bullying, the Chief Minister insisted in the Assembly late last week that I reveal my sources and table my evidence. Well, Mr Speaker, inconveniently for the government, the Chief Minister’s demand was in breach of both section 12 of the Chief Minister’s own Human Rights Act, which protects the privacy of individuals, and Westminster parliamentary practice, which provides that “as a general rule only documents which are of a public or official character should be ordered to be laid before the house”.
As a result of the serious concerns raised with me, I have now asked the Auditor-General to conduct an audit of the adequacy of basic supplies and equipment at Canberra’s public hospitals. Yet again, where is the open and accountable government that the Stanhope government promised us way back in 2001?
The government simply does not want the truth to come out. I am in no doubt that the claims about equipment shortages that I have put forward are absolutely true. Last Friday, when the Chief Minister went on radio to hose down the issue, even more evidence emerged of the equipment and supplies shortages identified by the opposition at the ACT’s public hospitals over the past few weeks.
One caller told of his mother-in-law recently having to wait for four hours on a lounge before being admitted for treatment at a Canberra public hospital. The lady was put on an airbed that went flat during the night, and a sheet at the window in a nearby area had to do service for blinds that had been taken down and never put back. The caller’s comment was that nurses are overworked and the system is overloaded. It was not something that Mr Stanhope was wishing to hear. His response was instructive:
Well, I can’t respond. I can respond generally but not to specifics. I am sure the hospital would have an explanation or response to the specifics.
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