Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Getting good health outcomes in regional and rural areas is difficult. On most measures, outcomes are behind those in the cities and suburbs. Meander Valley straddles my electorate and that of my good friend the member for Bass. It is bucking the trend. For some years Meander Valley has benefited from programs run by a mental health worker, a social worker and a youth worker. They run programs that are well attended and that report very good levels of satisfaction. The people of Meander Valley value these services very highly and are desperate to see them kept. They are concerned that funding looks set to cease on 31 December because of a change in focus by the Primary Health Network in regard to funding coordinated chronic care. What is particularly galling is the short amount of time the community has been given to prepare—just a matter of weeks. But it should not be a case of either-or. When something works, when something is valued, it should not simply be discarded for something new and untested. The member for Bass and I have been asked by the Meander Valley community to speak up on their behalf, to seek a six-month reprieve from the minister for health at the very least prior to the cessation of these services. We ask that for six months the current programs, not just those in Meander Valley but those throughout Tasmania, run concurrently with whatever new services the PHN decides upon, that a review be undertaken of respective outcomes and that a decision as to how best to proceed then be made based on qualitative data. Let's make decisions based on health outcomes and not budget outcomes.