Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says ongoing staff shortages and crippling pressure on the Territory’s health system is having a detrimental impact on Territorians living in regional and remote areas, with a number of clinics closing down over the Christmas holiday period.
“This comes at the same time the Gunner Government has thrown open the borders to interstate travellers.
“In the Barkly region, the Canteen Creek and Epenarra health centres have already been closed and won’t open until sometime in January 2022. It means residents from Epenarra have to travel more than two hours to Tennant Creek, or six hours to Alice Springs, while residents in Canteen Creek will have to travel at least three hours to Tennant Creek, or more than six hours to Alice Springs – just to see a doctor.
“As well as heaping additional stress on residents, this also puts additional pressure on healthcare providers in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. That’s simply not good enough.
“A government that can’t provide basic health services to a community, is a government in crisis.
“Opposition questions, submitted through a formal Parliamentary process, asked the Health Minister how many remote health clinics across the Territory have been closed, either permanently or temporarily since September 2016. The Minister refused to answer.
“Minister Fyles has overseen multiple Code Yellows, remote clinic closures, and failed to successfully rollout the COVID vaccination in remote communities – which has resulted in Labor’s vaccine mandate and left people living in the bush exposed.
“The vaccine rates in remote communities the Barkly and Central Australia are shameful. Just 37% of remote communities are fully vaccinated in the Barkly. At Epenarra, the percentage of residents double jabbed is just 20% and 26% at Canteen Creek. So why is the Gunner Government shutting down an essential health service in these communities?
“How can the Deputy Chief Minister, Nicole Manison, stand in front of the media and tell Territorians that the Barkly vaccine rate is amongst the lowest in the Territory, while her Health Minister closes remote clinics in Canteen Creek and Epenarra?
“Health Minister, Natasha Fyles, needs to explain why she ripped $4 million out of the Remote Primary Health Care budget, is closing remote health clinics and scrapping jobs at the Tennant Creek Hospital, while overseeing a $4.3 million health consultancy contract that breached procurement rules and has been referred to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.
“Labor’s $9 billion debt is having a catastrophic impact on the delivery of health services right across the Territory and the Gunner Government has no ability to plug the widespread staff shortages.
“The Health Minister is clearly overwhelmed managing the Howard Springs quarantine facility as well as the day to day health needs of the NT and Territorians are suffering. The Gunner Government needs to hand Howard Springs back to the Federal Government so it can focus on the delivery of critical health services to Territorians.
“The CLP supports ongoing permanent healthcare positions, rather than fixed term contracts, so that these critical staff shortages can be filled and certainty provided to interstate health professional looking to relocate to the Territory.
“The CLP would also reverse the Health Department’s major restructure to combine the Top End and Central Australia health services, which has essentially scrapped local health decision making. In May, the Gunner Government passed legislation to centralise all of our health services, which was a back-peddle on previous reforms undertaken by the CLP Government back in 2014. “The Gunner Government clearly doesn’t understand that the Top End and Central Australia are two different regions with different challenges and complexities and we need local decision making to ensure the most appropriate health care is tailored for Territorians whether they live in Karama or Kintore,” said Mr Yan.
ENDS