Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was recently able to assist a dedicated new eye surgery in my electorate on the Sunshine Coast. This clinic opened last year and we were able to assist it with respect to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The Minister for Health and Ageing joined me on a tour of this cutting edge facility during a recent visit to my electorate and he too was considerably impressed with what is being achieved.

The Sunshine Eye Clinic was established in the new Kawana Private Hospital by Dr Daniel Black. It specialises in cataract surgery, general ophthalmology and aviation medicine. This clinic has been designed with the latest ophthalmitic equipment available. Dr Black has specialised in ophthalmology in the region for 11 years and he is assisted by Dr Ioanne Anderson. Late last year, the clinic was concerned about the availability of eye surgery services on the Sunshine Coast, particularly for war veterans. As the clinic was relatively new it did not have accreditation from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to perform eye surgery that was eligible for rebates for veterans.

Unfortunately, the clinic had missed the tender deadline and the next deadline is in 2008. As all of the ophthalmologists in the city of Caloundra are operating from this clinic, it meant that veterans would be forced to travel to Brisbane or elsewhere on the Sunshine Coast for treatment. As a result of my representations in December, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has given the clinic approval to perform the surgery, allowing them to be eligible for the rebate.

The clinic has been campaigning for a relatively new type of eye test known as an ocular coherent tomography to become publicly funded under the Medicare benefits schedule. This is useful for the diagnosis and monitoring of eye diseases, including glaucoma and macular degeneration, and of diabetes. This equipment is invaluable in that it enables non-invasive, ongoing monitoring of a condition to help determine if a particular type of treatment is working successfully. The clinic and patients have been advised that the Medical Services Advisory Committee has not yet received an application to review OCT. We would very strongly like the application to be made, because this particular service would be of great benefit to many people on the Sunshine Coast.

As members would be aware, the Sunshine Coast is experiencing considerable population growth, and amongst those new residents are a considerable number of veterans. I was particularly pleased to be able to help effectively bring this new service to the region; now our veterans will be able to benefit from medical procedures in their local area. While visiting the region, the Minister for Health and Ageing was also able to tour the Caloundra Hospital and the new Kawana Private Hospital, both of which are wonderful medical facilities doing good work for the region. The Sunshine Coast, as one of the fastest growing areas in the country, needs infrastructure, growth and health facilities and I call on the state government to make sure that state government funded facilities on the Sunshine Coast in the area of health meet our growing population needs.