Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In response to this year's budget, the Australian Diabetes Council noted that support had been maintained for the National Diabetes Service Scheme despite funding constraints. They further noted that amongst new and amended listings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which totalled $686 million in cost, Juvicor, a treatment for type 2 diabetes, was added and, furthermore, that Medicare Locals were important with regard to access to after-hours care. Finally, it noted that the government also provided support to the families of children with type 1 diabetes through the Type 1 Diabetes Insulin Pump Program. That, as far as it goes, is good to hear. However, I join with my state colleague the shadow minister for health in New South Wales, Dr Andrew McDonald, in saying that the experience of one of our constituents, Allison McPherson, a 43-year-old single mother of Hoxton Park—and that of her father, Mick, otherwise known as Emmanuel Micallef, and her daughter, Carmen—is indicative of continuing problems with regard to care for this health issue in Australia. Carmen received a Liverpool council award for bravery for saving her mother when she fainted from hypoglycaemia in October last year—and, of course, that received some media coverage.

For 22 years Allison had worked with the NRMA, which is now part of the Insurance Australia Group. She expresses some understandable resentment at her termination from employment under the pretext of her inability to work with that organisation when suffering from diabetes type 1. After 22 years of employment, all of a sudden this is the end of Western civilisation as far as that employer was concerned. It was more than coincidental that she had succeeded in resisting that company's pressure, and that of their doctors, for an operation regarding suffering from a parallel carpal tunnel syndrome issue. Interestingly enough, after she had been terminated, all the paperwork within that organisation which testified to her many years of assiduous and recognised service in the organisation mysteriously disappeared from files. Fellow employees were told that she had actually terminated her services rather than the reverse—her being pushed out because of 'it being unlikely that you will be able to return to work'. There was a further comment from medical sources: 'I do not expect her to return to work unless in the coming months there is a great success achieved with the insulin pump.'

This interrelates with the question of insulin pumps. As noted earlier, for under-18-year-olds in Australia there is a degree of assistance. However, in my constituent's case the $9,500 BUPA Australia pump was only provided because of her ability, at great suffering, to keep up private health insurance. However, she notes a further cost to herself of $30 a month and the fact that for another $1,300, which she cannot afford, she can have a continuous blood glucose monitor, thus denying the need to have eight finger pricks daily.

Control is, of course, crucial in this area. It is plausible to have systems integrated with a feedback loop connecting the transmitter and the pump, and thus monitor blood and sugar insulin. We have a situation where 40 per cent of children do have these pumps, but for many older Australians, when the problem can lead to blindness and indeed death or comas, this is not good enough.

I note that another parallel issue is the question of education. It is disturbing to see that last year in Campbelltown there was the closure of a children's education unit. This woman's father, Mr Micallef, is very resentful of the degree to which he and his wife over their life have had to educate the teachers and the education system in general about the needs of their daughter Allison, who has suffered from this problem since she was four years of age.

We have a situation where there is a need for more training in the education system in New South Wales. There is a need for state and federal governments, particularly at the federal level, to look at the cost of these pumps to make sure that they are widely available. We are talking about a significant loss to productivity, as exemplified by this woman's forced departure from the workforce after 22 years of exemplary service. We are talking about people not being able to drive their children to school and we are talking about very major issues with regard to health in this country. I salute this family for their endeavours on that front.