Page 3890 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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I also think there need to be—and I will say it in this place—more radical reforms from the federal level now. We have got a new federal government, and I think we need to see the way in which Medicare actually works, the whole bulk-billing issue, the way that we remunerate GPs. Maybe a ranking system is something that we could think about, much like they do in the forces. You have a rank and you are actually paid, like in any job, I suppose, accordingly. There is a whole new area there that is still untapped. We perhaps need to investigate that.
The other thing I was looking at—and it has already been announced, which I have welcomed but, in part, would pose a big question over it—was the paediatric emergency department waiting area. Obviously, children do need to be in an area conducive to their wellbeing. It is a very stressful time for young children and for parents too. Is this going to really ensure children are moved through more quickly in the emergency department? If it can be proved to me that that is the case, then that is all to the good.
What are they going to do? “Provide for the refurbishment and furnishing of the current waiting area … to incorporate a children’s waiting and play area within an extended main waiting area, ensuring that children and parents awaiting emergency care do so in a safe, child friendly environment”. It does say that there will be two clinical initiatives nurses to provide extended treatment and care options for children. I am about getting people into the area where we can, moving them through the system as quickly as we can. Of course, we have heard today vexed issues of access block, bed block and so forth.
As well, we may need to look at the whole area where people wait. It is great that we are doing this for children first, but let us hope that people who are sick and chronically ill can wait in an area that is conducive to their wellbeing, too. I will cite a recent example—this week, in fact—of a friend of mine who has had recent brain surgery and now is receiving treatment. He presented not well to the emergency department. Because he is receiving radiation treatment, his immune system is quite shot. He had to sit around while people were vomiting in bags and coughing and spluttering. In the end, after about three hours, he left.
There is a whole other story to that which I must tell the minister about as well, but I am really keen to see that whole emergency area improve in the way that we mix patients together. This person should have been fast-tracked through as a category 1, because they phoned the oncologist to clear a path for him, but it did not happen when he got to the hospital. Notwithstanding that, I cautiously say that is a good initiative, but let us see how quickly children can be moved through the emergency area.
We also have been hearing much about management of public hospitals. I think the management issue within public hospitals is a major problem. The health minister keeps standing up and saying that I am denigrating our nurses on the front line. That is rude, and she knows it is. It is disingenuous in the least to say that I would attack people on the front line. I do not, I never have, and I never would. People in the administration who may have been nurses are a different issue. I would say people in the administrative area should be held accountable. That is reasonable. But people on the front line are the ones often who tend to get the rough end of the stick.
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