Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to participate in this MPI debate on Australia's health system and to comment on the great leadership displayed by federal Labor health ministers Plibersek and previously Roxon, particularly in my home state of Tasmania—leadership that stands in stark contrast to that of the Leader of the Opposition, when he was health minister of our country for the years leading up to the 2007 election. This was a time when over $1 billion was ripped out of Australia's health system by the Howard coalition government. During a time when the mining boom was delivering them more cash than they knew what to do with, their priorities are laid bare in that fact. Contrast this mismanagement and spin with Labor's firm priority to deliver better results for patients and their families. I want to read for the Senate a letter to the editor in today's Advocate from my local area, concerning the quality of health care in Tasmania. It states:

Last Friday week at 3 am, I suffered a major heart attack at Penguin.

My wife drove me to the Burnie hospital where I was assessed and given first-line treatment and when I was stable, it was decided to evacuate me to the Hobart hospital for specialist treatment.

Unfortunately there were no beds available so I was sent by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Launceston, where I was seen by specialist staff and by 8am had had a stent placed in my heart.

After a few days of wonderful treatment, I was discharged to enjoy the remainder of my holiday in your state.

This guy's letter continues:

All I can say as a visitor from Queensland, thank you very much to the health services of Tasmania and the professional staff.

I want to thank Mr Baltokiewicz for writing this letter and to wish him well in his recovery. I hope that he travels with his wife again to Tasmania soon.

I, too, want to thank the wonderful staff at the Burnie and Launceston hospitals who treated this patient within five hours. This is hardly a health system in disarray. This letter highlights that in this instance Tasmania's health system delivered satisfactorily. Everyone on both sides accepts that there are ongoing stresses to the health system across Australia. We Australians want and need a federal government that makes the tough decisions and steps in where required.

In Tasmania, the federal Labor government acted last year to provide a $325 million assistance package to boost access to health care. The package will boost the healthcare outcomes for all Tasmanians. This is a state that has the oldest population and whose population demographic is ageing the fastest. Just yesterday the preliminary report on improving the delivery of health services for Tasmanian patients was released. Developed by the Commission on Delivery of Health Services in Tasmania, the report addresses the key stresses in my state's health system, highlights community suggestions and sets the direction for 2013.

The commission was set up through the assistance package and is tasked with advising the state and federal governments on how best to redesign the state's health services to help better manage current and future pressures.

Labor is committed to making plans for the future and delivering quality services for all Australians. Health has definitely been a major topic in the Advocate this week, with Tuesday's front page dedicated to the start of physical works at the North West Regional Cancer Centre. This cancer centre, a 2010 Labor election commitment, will provide a treatment facility closer to home for the 600 north-west Tasmanians who are diagnosed with cancer every year. It has taken around 18 months to prepare the site and construction is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. The centre will be operational in 2016 after the linear accelerator goes live.

Other Labor election commitments delivered for north-west Tasmanians are the GP superclinics at Burnie and Devonport and the revitalisation of the Mersey Community Hospital. These superclinics, which would be scrapped by the opposition, provide a fantastic level of care across a range of front-line services, taking some of the burden off our region's emergency departments. In Latrobe, Labor has invested over $200 million on upgrading and running the Mersey Community Hospital. The upgrades, completed over the past few years, have delivered a state-of-the-art emergency department and outpatients unit as well as a new high-dependency unit. The evidence from Tasmania highlights that, as all Australians know, the only party who can be trusted to deliver a quality public healthcare system is Labor.