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CONSULTATIONS A MOCKERY
(also see below radio precis 12/11/08)
11 November 2008
Member for
Flinders Liz Penfold labeled the government’s newly released Country
Health Care Strategy as a mockery of country people.
The government announced
that the Draft Strategy for Planning Country Health Services in SA has
been released for a four week period of public consultations. The Minister
also announced that public consultations will be held in a few areas
throughout the state.
“Obviously the Minister
wants to keep the public in the dark as much as possible while appearing
to be offering the olive branch” Mrs Penfold said.
She questioned the
usefulness of holding public meetings during the daytime when most people
will be at work and more particularly during harvest.
“Three of the four
two-hour meetings proposed for Eyre Peninsula are in the daytime when
people are working and farmers are harvesting what little crop they have.
So this is not a plan to get a lot of people along to have input” she
said.
“Rural people will hardly
have the time to read and digest the ‘strategy’ in the timeframe allowed,
let alone have time to discuss the outcomes with peers in the community
and attend these inconvenient and contrived meetings.”
Public meetings
previously held in the evenings commanded huge turnouts. However there are
only 4 meetings planned for Eyre Peninsula, Cleve, Cummins, Wudinna and
Streaky Bay while Tumby Bay, Kimba, Elliston, Ceduna and Port Lincoln are
not even afforded the opportunity to attend a meeting in their home town.
“Once again isolation,
distance and sparse populations mean the government’s token effort is a
mockery of justice,” Mrs Penfold said.
She said the previously
announced “plan” which indicated action, has now become a “strategy” which
indicates ideas and talk fests. The document is very light on detail and
until there is some disclosure, Mrs. Penfold believes the plan is useless
for regional hospitals to have any sense of security for the future.
ENDS
Liz Penfold, Member for Flinders
(639ABC 8.47-8.54) Country Health
Draft Plan
(Weir: … Liz Penfold has had a bit of a look at the new Country Health
Draft Plan and she says that the consultation process and the timeline
involved makes a mockery of country people … good morning … are you saying
the Minister and the Dept of Health wants to keep people in the dark in
the country?)
yes I think so, I think it’s a bit of a joke what they’re trying to do,
what happened to the consultation with each and everyone of the hospitals
in their communities, that seems to have gone out the door, its population
based funding, I think they’re dead keen to get The Marj and with the
economic slow down there just won’t be the money, so the more they keep us
down and keep us to the minimum, the more money they have to spend in the
city and that’s how this comes across to me, I don’t think that we’re
being given a fair crack of the whip, it’s going to be harvest time, three
of these consultation meetings are going to be in the middle of the day,
everyone that can will be out harvesting or they work, because they’ve got
to have [unclear] these days, so the people that will get there will be
mostly the retired people, well they’re not the ones that are going to
have to take the responsibility of our hospitals on board for the future
(Weir: The Health Minister John Hill would say that this new draft is
really a strategy so that the real consultation can now take place, so is
it simply the matter of the timeline involved?)
well there’s just too few consultations, there’s a month to do the
consultation, there’s only four out of the ten hospitals on Eyre Peninsula
that are going to have meetings in their towns, of those meetings, three
of them are going to be in the middle of the day and in the middle of
harvest, so you can’t help but think that this is just a joke, what we
really needed and I think people were happy with, was each town with a
hospital and each community was going to be consulted about what they
needed for their community, now they’re not going to get it, it’s not
happening, so my confidence that this is a genuine attempt to try and get
things right in country regions and it won’t be just my country region,
it’s right across regional SA, it’s just not going - that’s not really
what they want (
Weir: You said that the previous draft of what was a plan in using the
word plan the government indicated that there was going to be action and a
lot of people were very concerned about potential actions and the impacts
on them, on their community, and you’re saying that this one is a strategy
so it’s the opportunity simply for more talk?)
yes I think that’s what it is, it’s the usual thing, consult us to death
until we all just feel we can’t say anymore, but don’t take any notice, so
if things are always changing as I said, we were supposed to be getting
this individual consultation with each hospital, each community, now it’s
a strategy and it’s over four weeks and it just indicates that someone’s
going to come, have a talk at a very inconvenient time to the people and
then go away again, say they’ve consulted and they’ve got a strategy in
mind, well I think the strategy is being evident because the plan put it
in place, that’s what they really want and this is to keep us all quiet
while they get on with it
(Weir: You’ve also suggested that the consultation is only happening in
certain selected towns across the Eyre Peninsula, is this typical of or do
you think that this is typical of the government’s hap hazard approach?)
well Cleve, Cummins, Wudinna and Streaky Bay are going to have
consultations but Tumby Bay, Kimba, Elliston, Ceduna, Port Lincoln, Cowell
are not going to be afforded the opportunity of consultations, now those
communities, they can’t go across to the towns, especially in the middle
of the day, where the government have decreed there will be a
consultation, again, these people want to keep their hospitals, I’ve
already had phone calls from concerned people, one particular doctor was
absolutely beside himself, that his little hospital which is vital to the
community, is his future, is not going to have the input to say what they
want for their hospital, every hospital is different, every hospital has
different needs, they have slightly different facilities, they know what
they need in their particular hospital, and so that individual
consultation to tailor the needs for that hospital to the needs of their
community is what they want, that’s what they were assured they were going
to be given and this is not what they’re getting
(Weir: Rob Kerin who is the retiring Member for Frome is saying it was the
frustration of being in Opposition for the last six or seven years that
finally was the last straw for him… how are you feeling in terms of where
you sit with the government right now?)
I feel absolutely disgusted with this government, it’s population based
funding, they’re putting all their efforts into gimmicks and icons in the
city, and very expensive ones, super schools, super hospital, a super
hospital but their real economic driver for this state is the country
regions, this is where the real jobs and economy is going to drive this
state, but we’re not getting any of the infrastructure and the things we
need, now that’s shown I think by the plan that they’ve put in place for
their infrastructure, their five projects for the $20b with Federal
funding, Building Australia Fund are all city based projects and none of
them are income earning assets, they’re all depreciating liabilities that
are going to be sitting in the city, now that to me is just insane
thinking, the economics of it doesn’t make sense to me, we need the basic
infrastructure in the city like Tom Playford, in the country rather, like
Tom Playford put, out in the region to get these small, particularly the
mining, 80% of the mining, exploration is in my electorate or the Gawler
Craton anyway and yet not a cent is being
requested out of this Federal Building Fund to put in the infrastructure
we need and yet if we don’t get a big port somewhere in the Eyre
Peninsula, and certainly not up at Port Bonython because that is a wrong
place for desal, wrong place for a port, it needs to be on the west coast,
it needs to be connected to the railway and we’re not getting it
(Weir: … appreciate you being on the program …) thank you.
Call
for Health Minister to resign
1 August 2008
“Yesterday morning’s back flip by the Minster
for Health, John Hill on his South Australian Country Health Care Plan is
proof that he has mismanaged the health portfolio and should resign”, said
Mrs Penfold, Member for Flinders.
“He has caused massive unnecessary anguish and
distress in all our small regional communities and it will take years for
many people to recover and gain enough confidence to live and invest in
them.”
Eight weeks ago on the 5th June Mr
Hill released his Country Health Care plan without any prior community
consultation.
“I don’t think he had any idea of how many
people he would frighten and also insult by implementing this plan” said
Mrs Penfold.
“This issue has attracted the biggest response
I have ever seen in my 14 years of being the Member for Flinders. It
really hit home for the regional constituents and they have fought and
will continue to fight for the heart and soul of their communities- their
hospitals” said Mrs Penfold.
“Minister Hill did not undertake a Regional
Impact Statement which in itself shows a blatant disregard to regional
people and the lack of thought and planning put into this Country Health
Care Plan”
“Clearly he is incapable of handling the
health portfolio and I don’t believe that country people will ever trust
him again.” Mrs Penfold said.
Mrs Penfold also commented on the Labor
Government’s waste of thousands of dollars advertising the now ‘failed’
Country Health Care Plan. “That wasted money could have been spent where
it is most needed- on our country hospitals”
“Well done to all those who wrote, rang and
emailed the Minster and media, attended rallies and meetings. It is this
pressure that has made the Minister re evaluate his plan. This is a win in
itself for our regional communities.” Such an outcry may well be needed
again as the cuts to our small schools impact on their viability and they
are forced to close. “Big is not better for hospitals or schools Mr
Rann”, Mrs Penfold stated
Ends:
Contact : Liz Penfold
0428 830 722
Labor
condemns country hospitals
1 July 2008
Member for
Flinders Liz Penfold said that the pressure on Health Minister John Hill
over the downgrading of country hospitals is having an affect but many
hospitals are still condemned to a slow death by Labor.
“Under public pressure
to provide more certainty on country hospitals, Mr Hill today during
questions on the budget indicated that he has chosen one hospital from
each of Eyre Peninsula’s existing hospital clusters for survival over the
next ten years,” she said.
Of the Cleve/Kimba/Cowell
cluster, Cleve has been chosen to have “no material change” while Cowell
and Kimba are “not sustainable”.
Of the Streaky
Bay/Wudinna/Elliston cluster, Streaky Bay “may change”, Elliston is “not
sustainable”, and Wudinna can expect “no material change”.
The Cummins/Tumby Bay
cluster has Tumby Bay with “no material change expected” and Cummins as a
“may change” hospital.
“It is an interesting
reprieve to note that the minister has changed to “may” as opposed to
“will” from the actual statement in the health care plan that states ‘Birthing
and surgical services currently provided in Cummins will be
transferred to the Port Lincoln General Hospital over time’
” Mrs Penfold.
.
Mrs Penfold said these
dire predictions by the Minister will be a self-fulfilling prophecy with
funding priorities and the expectations of bureaucrats and communities
influenced significantly by the Minister’s forecasts.
“The Minister says he is
now consulting the people and I urge everyone to contact him about the
detrimental effect of his Country Health Plan on Eyre Peninsula’s small
communities and ask him to maintain all our hospitals,” she said.
“However he’s already put
the relevant Act in place and he has put the Budget in place yet no
Regional Impact Statement has even been developed.
“The Minister stated in
answer to the Shadow Health Minister Vicki Chapman that he believed the
results of any RIS would be largely positive, which indicates his current
thinking!”
Mrs Penfold said replies
given to questions arising from the public protest meeting at Cummins were
typical bureaucratic put-offs.
“In response to the
request for a definition for an acute bed, the reply is that the current
practice of acute care in Cummins will continue.
“What does the Minister
mean by ‘acute care’? And how can it happen without a doctor and the
facilities that are there now?” she asked.
Mrs Penfold said that
modelling done by the Rural Doctors Association of SA (RDASA) has shown
that, under the government’s new plan, patients in 10 of the affected
communities would face between 200 and 400 kilometre return trips to
access acute inpatient care resulting in almost 3 million additional
kilometres of travel and about $3.3 million in additional costs per year.
RDASA’s modelling is
based on the 43 rural South Australian hospitals which could lose acute
medical inpatient services under the plan, and is based on figures
supplied in the SA Country Health Care Plan i.e. the government’s own
figures.
RDASA vice president Dr
Rischbieth said, “It is nonsensical to suggest that rural South
Australians will be better off under the Plan.
“The Plan has been the
definition of chaos from day one and our calculations show just how much
more money it will cost South Australian taxpayers and rural patients.”
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