Radio Interview - ABC SA Regional Drive with Narelle Graham
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SA REGIONAL DRIVE
TUESDAY, 1 MARCH 2022
SUBJECT: Senate inquiry into GP shortages.
NARELLE GRAHAM, HOST: Let's revisit the Senate inquiry that's looking into the shortage of doctors and other health services in regional South Australia. Senate committee that's conducting this inquiry was in Whyalla and held a hearing. Senator Karen Grogan is the Labor Senator for South Australia. Welcome to you.
KAREN GROGAN, LABOR SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Thank you for having me Narelle.
GRAHAM: No, good to be speaking with you. Now I believe that Dr Martin Kelly spoke to, as part of this hearing today and was really quite emotional and emotional about the issue of health services in regional and remote locations. What did he say to you?
GROGAN: That's right Narelle. It was a very deeply emotional session. Dr Kelly has obviously been through quite an ordeal since the tragic death of Gail Woodford in 2016. And his frustrations were evident throughout the session. The legislation, as you probably know, passed in 2017, but since then the money has not flowed. There was original money provided to carry through on the coroner's recommendations and that money has since been wrapped into a general funding pool. And they're still waiting for the additional resources that they need to make sure that staff, health staff working up in the APY Lands, are kept safe. And obviously the frustration he felt was, was intense. Sorry.
GRAHAM: No, no, Karen, please continue.
GROGAN: He spoke to us about the, his attempts to get money for his THE service, for the things that were committed to, and he said that it was told to him that it would be contingent upon a review of those services. That review obviously has dragged out. But his and his tale of how that review was conducted was very alarming to the committee, very alarming indeed. And obviously we're going to need to do some work to drill into that. But effectively, he said that the review was not like any other audit that they had at Nganampa. Now, in business for 38 years, they've had a significant number of audits over those years and Dr Kelly was telling us every single one of those audits have come up clean. There's been nothing found. The service has been reported to have been operating well with no problems. So he was very surprised at how challenging this review was. The two auditors that came, the two people who came to undertake the review, spent precisely two and a half hours on the APY Lands and visited two out of the seven services Nganampa run and that included their travel time. So some serious concerns about that and much as they would have done a lot of desktop auditing and they spoke to a range of people on the phone they didn't engage in the services that are being provided, which is concerning.
GRAHAM: Oh. My guest is Senator Karen Grogan. We are talking about this GP inquiry. How did that happen, that the funding that was supposed to help remote nurses in the APY Lands evaporated?
GROGAN: I have to say, Narelle, I have no idea because at the time in 2016, I know I certainly remember it, and many, many, I'm sure you do too. It was alarming. Everybody was, was working really hard to find the solution to make sure people were safe, to make sure that nothing like this happen to anyone else. I know that Gail’s family worked so hard to push for the solutions for her colleagues into the future and the support was forthcoming. But it appears that as it's gone off the radar, that funding has changed and the commitments have not been carried through on in the way that everyone thought they were going to be.
GRAHAM: Yeah. So the money is still there. It's just that it's going into general revenue. So it's not necessarily getting to the APY Lands. Am I understanding that correctly?
GROGAN: That's my understanding as well, again I'm working off the evidence from today and I haven't, we only just finished so I...
GRAHAM: So this is what you’ve heard today and there is more work to be done, more follow up, you're creating more work for yourself. So where to now for the inquiry into access to health care in remote and regional areas?
GROGAN: Well, I think on the issue of Nganampa Health, Dr. Kelly and his colleagues, we're going to have to do some digging to see what's actually happened there. On the broader inquiry, the inquiry still has a bit of time to run which is good because there is such a volume of evidence from around the country. Obviously, my core concern is South Australia. And what we've heard today is basically that the primary health in the Eyre Peninsula is broken and that particularly in the northern Eyre Peninsula has, and this is a fascinating statistic, has got point three doctors per 1000 people, which is the same as the doctor ratio in Afghanistan which is not an area that you would see us as being comparable with in terms of health services. And the history of the two places. We're hearing that doctors are, because of the shortage, doctors are having to work ridiculous hours, under extreme pressure and it's just not a sustainable model. So something's got to shift. So we've heard everything from Streaky Bay Council, who increased their council rates, which the town agrees to out of desperation for a doctor and a proper clinic. And they run raffles and they have all sorts of donation drives and to actually fund their health service. It's not a council responsibility.
GRAHAM: No. They're just looking after their people, their community. Senator Karen Grogan, thank you. I appreciate it. Labor Senator for South Australia.
ENDS