Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says it is disgraceful renal dialysis patients are being turned away from scheduled sessions because of critical staff shortages within the NT health system – and sent instead to the Emergency Department at Royal Darwin Hospital.
“For this to happen in the electorate of Natasha Fyles – who is the Chief Minister and also the Health Minister – is highly embarrassing and just not good enough.
“This is the same Minister who did not know, and still has not revealed, her own staff shortages in the Department of Health.
“During the Estimates process it was revealed there were 1,400 resignations from the Department of Health in the nine months to 31st March 2022, which is 450 more than the previous year.
“Natasha Fyles couldn’t explain the mass exodus of health staff and didn’t know how many of those resignations were frontline workers. Minister Fyles also didn’t know how many vacancies the department has in remote health clinics.
“This is the same Health Minister who is responsible for five Code Yellow internal emergencies at Royal Darwin Hospital in just 12 months, the widespread cancellation of essential elective surgeries, the closure of remote health clinics in the middle of a pandemic, bungling the remote vaccine rollout, and putting in an order for $130 million worth of Rapid Antigen Tests.
“The CLP supports ongoing permanent healthcare positions, rather than fixed term contracts, so that health professionals looking to relocate can have job security.
“The CLP is focused on combatting the disastrous upward trends of alcohol-related harm and violence, which puts further pressure on our health system. We would also ensure the allocation of Federal funding is spent in the critical areas of primary health care, mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, and used to employ more nurses and support our remote health clinics. “To manage the longer-term health needs of Territorians, the CLP would 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,” said Mr Yan.
ENDS