David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about this very important issue of inflammatory bowel disease. The two common forms are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. I would like to say that I support this motion in general, although I might modify some of the subpoints and bring to the House the fact that some of these issues are already being addressed. In general, I think this is an excellent motion and deserves support. I congratulate the member for Fowler and the member for Shortland for saying what they have said.

Unfortunately, inflammatory bowel disease is a common disease. It is just that people do not talk about it when you see them at the pub or at a cafe. You do not walk up and say, 'I have got this chronic condition with my guts that leads to a great deal of morbidity and a lot of drug treatment, and often surgery.' It is not a thing that you talk about publicly. But it is out there and I have spent the last couple of decades of my medical life treating people with this distressing condition, which fortunately now has much more effective treatments available.

The federal government and previous governments before this coalition government have supported and continue to support the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease through the Medicare Benefits Schedule, which supports rebates for endoscopic procedures for assessment by specialist surgeons and gastroenterologists and through a general practitioner who are all part of the treatment team. It also supports the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the specialised drugs and the biological agents, which have been game changers in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease—namely, infliximab and adalimumab. Also, the radiological investigations now are so much more advanced such as PillCams, which are microscopic cameras that you swallow, and MRIs that define fistulas and abscesses, which are an ugly part of Crohn's disease.

The motion calls on support for a couple of initiatives. The University of Western Sydney is establishing a translational gastroenterology centre. That seems like a good idea, although there are a lot of other research institutions already trying to do translational research. The concept of focusing it in one new dedicated centre deserves consideration. Like all things, it costs money. At the moment, our role is to manage money wisely. There is also a tissue bank, for the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease, and a patient registry of inflammatory bowel disease has been organised out of Melbourne. Many practitioners do report to it, particularly in the paediatrics space. If there is some way of coordinating all these data collection points into an Australia-wide databank, that would existentially be a great idea because it is these tissue banks and genetic banks that the researchers can look at to pick apart the puzzle of inflammatory bowel disease. There are many genes involved in inflammatory bowel disease, not just one, and tissue banks and data accumulation are gold for researchers. Many countries, for example in Scandinavia, have huge nationalised databanks. We have a hybrid system where we have private practitioners treating it, we have academic centres treating it, we have salaried people treating it, we have surgeons treating it, we have gastroenterologists treating it and we have immunologists treating it. If we put all that data together, it can only help the relentless quest for knowledge about what genes actually trigger it and what cofactors trigger those genes to activate and manifest the disease in people.

There are many good points in this motion. It is rare that I get something that is right up my historical alley. I have worked in the corridors of power in other areas, and it is refreshing to see that people in this House are taking an interest in a specific disease that is not really sexy. As I said, most people keep this disease at home, or just between their doctors and themselves. I support the motion.

See this speech in context