Page 1520 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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right or to the left—I am not quite sure which. We moved in a completely different direction because we are now going to have a complete restructure.
Maybe the government got wind of what the accreditation report would say and thought that it would get out in front of it. It is unclear what the reason is. But what we know is that this minister has failed to address the issues in Health. The real issues in Health are the impacts that they have on patients.
Over the last few weeks we have seen a litany of horrific stories coming out of the maternity section of the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. There have been a number of stories in the paper of women who actually said that they feared for their own lives and/or the lives of the children who were being born to them.
I am a mother. I have given birth in Canberra hospitals five times. I had a dream run every time. Most people have a dream run. But the 10 per cent or less who have complicated pregnancies need to be assured that the services the hospital provides are timely and that they are the right services.
Mr Wall has just read to me a post today from a woman in Canberra Hospital who was supposed to have an induction last week because her baby was breeched. She has a back injury. The baby turned around and it was safe to deliver it normally. That induction was delayed for a variety of reasons. Today her baby has turned to breech again and that woman has to have an emergency caesarean birth.
These are the stories that are coming out time and time again. They show that this minister has failed the hospital staff and the people of Canberra. That is why she is no longer fit to be the minister. (Time expired.)
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (10.18): As foreshadowed during last month’s sittings, I had intended to make a ministerial statement today to update the Assembly and the ACT community on how the government is strengthening the capacity of the ACT health system to deliver public health services to Canberrans and ensure they have access to the highest quality care to keep them as healthy and well as they can be. But instead I will include this update in my speech on the motion put forward by the opposition, also noting there is significant work to be done to also respond to their motion on the notice paper for tomorrow’s debate. Nonetheless, I welcome this opportunity to outline what I and the government are doing to improve the health and wellbeing of our community and invest in a high quality, sustainable health system.
I will address a number of issues today, including those raised by the opposition. In outlining these issues and in recognising some recent challenges, the government, Minister Rattenbury as the Minister for Mental Health, with whom I work closely, and I remain steadfastly committed to delivering the government’s health priorities. This includes, as I outlined in my ministerial statement earlier in the year, improving waiting times, completing and implementing the recommendations from the system-wide data review, clinical service planning to deliver truly territory-wide
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