Page 3376 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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Obviously the family’s needs and emotions need to be addressed, and that is absolutely a priority. That is what has been learnt out of this case. But there is also a need to inform the public. There is a balance that needs to be achieved. We got it wrong in the first case by giving too much public information and not enough to the family, and we do not want to go to the other extreme where the public does not receive information. We need to make sure that we are achieving a balance. Of course, each individual case will be somewhat unique.
Other concerns have been raised with me about where the minister has been throughout this whole process. It seems that Dr Charles Guest, the Chief Health Officer, has been left to publicly apologise. I believe there is a ministerial responsibility to speak to the media and to be the frontperson for ACT Health and not just to be there when there is a good news story. The minister should also be there when a tragedy like this unfolds. The Minister for Health should be at the forefront of dealing with these sorts of issues.
My concern is that this is a trend that we have seen in the government. I note that in regard to the recent unfortunate death in custody of a remandee that the minister refused to speak to the media also and it was left to Corrections officials. I understand that when there is a death, either in the hospital or in Corrections, there is a limited amount of information that can be passed on and that it needs to be handled very sensitively in waiting for investigations and so on. But I think the community do expect their ministers to front up to the media to answer questions and provide advice from the health professionals. I do not think that ministers, be it either the health minister or the Minister for Corrections, should be avoiding and refusing to speak to the media simply because there has been a fatality.
I refer to the offer I have provided previously about a bipartisan approach to swine flu. I continue to express my confidence in the way that ACT Health are dealing with the issue more broadly. I believe that the remediation measures they have put in place are right. I express my great confidence in Dr Charles Guest and his staff in the way that they are dealing with the issue. We have to deal with the issue at hand, which is that of the family, as an individual case. (Time expired.)
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (4.13): I thank Mr Hanson for bringing this matter to the Assembly. Let me say from the beginning that, in relation to this individual, elements of the communication with the family were certainly not as timely as they could have been. In certain areas it lacked information that they were obviously seeking. But in this case—and I do have some difficulty talking on individual matters because of some of the laws that we have around privacy of an individual’s health records in particular—from my review of the matter the coronial process did complicate the matter in terms of the communication, not in terms of the response.
I am also unhappy about the contact that the family had over the individual’s possessions. It was an unfortunate mistake that has obviously compounded the family’s grief, and ACT Health has apologised to the family. I have written to express my condolences to the family of the individual. Anyone who has experienced the sudden loss of a member of one’s family knows that it is devastating, and there is very little any of us can do to put aside grief for families.
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