Page 1619 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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(2) calls on the ACT Government to investigate possible legislative responses that could be pursued to ensure that patients are afforded an appropriate period of notice.
Mr Speaker, I move this motion in the Assembly today in the context of the recent closure of the Kippax family practice. As we know, general practitioners have a central role, and a very much valued role, to play in primary health care and in the delivery of health services in the ACT.
Consumers of health services rely on their general practitioners for everyday advice and assistance. They very much rely on their general practitioner being available to them, and also as a way of accessing other health services through referral. We like to think that all consumers have a right to be treated respectfully and to be accorded the appropriate notification when any service is about to change its location or, indeed, cease its operation.
It is even more important, for instance, when that service is one that provides a person with medical advice for themselves or for their children. Recent behaviour by some service providers in the provision of general practice has not met this standard of common courtesy and professional behaviour. As we know, medical services have closed abruptly of late, without adequate notice to their patients, causing considerable distress and uncertainty.
When I imagine myself as one of those patients and contemplate the sequence of events that resulted in the closure of the Kippax family medical practice, I am left feeling dismayed and not a little angry. As I understand it, the staff members were informed by the owner of the business of his intentions on the Tuesday afternoon, and by the Wednesday morning the locks had been changed on the practice This ensured that the staff had no access to the clinic and, therefore, no capacity to attend to patients on the site.
Effectively, the locks were changed on the clinic before the patients were informed of the decision, including those patients who had appointments the following day. To say that this is hugely inconsiderate on the part of the entity who owns the clinic is an understatement. I understand that people turned up at the door of the practice only to find a note informing them that the practice had closed.
I am sure that members of this place can understand the stress that patients are placed under when these critical services are withdrawn in such a manner. It is conceivable that several of the appointments scheduled for the days following this abrupt closure were of a serious nature and that these people with serious medical conditions and requirements may have been forced to look elsewhere on the day to find another doctor, a doctor who had not been privy to their medical history and with no access to their medical records. Patients have to pay a fee and apply for a transfer of their records to get their records transferred to the new doctor. Of course, all of this takes time.
Mr Speaker, as we know the relationship between a medical practitioner and their patient is a special one. Trust is developed between the patient and their doctor or
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