Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House of what support the Commonwealth government is providing to public hospitals in Queensland? Is the minister satisfied that the Queensland government is satisfactorily discharging its obligations under the health care agreement?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Fairfax for his question, and I note that he has every right to be anxious about the state of Queensland public hospitals, both as a local member and as the chairman of the House’s Standing Committee on Health and Ageing. I can inform him and other members that Queensland will receive more than $8 billion from the Commonwealth under the current health care agreement. In addition, Queensland is receiving almost $8 billion a year thanks to the GST. But despite these rivers of gold, the Beattie government is chronically underfunding the public hospital system of Queensland. Its spending per head is 25 per cent less than the average spending of the other states. If you do not spend the money, you do not get the services—and the Dr Death inquiry has revealed woefully inadequate procedures for vetting overseas medical qualifications, routine intimidation of staff who question management decisions and habitual deceit about issues such as waiting lists which turned out to be three times greater than publicly claimed.

Last month the Caboolture hospital emergency department was forced to close, and this means that 150,000 people in one of the fastest growing areas of Queensland do not have ready access to emergency department services. On the very day it closed there was a fatal accident less than 250 metres from this hospital and those people were denied ready access to emergency department services. Last year 200 patients presented at that emergency department who needed immediate attention, 3,000 patients presented at that emergency department who needed attention within 10 minutes and more than 10,000 patients presented there who needed attention within 30 minutes. Most of these people will now be forced to go to Redcliffe, which is up to 40 minutes away by car. Of course, it is possible that they might be able to go by ambulance except that Queensland’s emergency controllers are now dispatching fire engines—fire engines!—to accident victims because there are no longer enough ambulances in Queensland.

What is Premier Beattie doing about this? Today we see more advertisements claiming that it is all the federal government’s fault, even though the number of federally funded, first-year medical student places in Queensland has almost doubled since 1996. I think this parliament should send a very clear message to Premier Beattie: start fixing this mess now; stop telling lies about the federal government to try to save your own political skin.