Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The proper and responsible care of those who are at the end of life is of great importance to me. We must always assist local organisations that provide the comfort, support and care to those with terminal illness or with a chronic illness requiring palliative care. One such organisation is Little Haven Palliative Care in Gympie, in my electorate, and they desperately need our support.

Little Haven was founded in 1980 as a small community initiative, and is now a major palliative care operation in the region, with nurses servicing the Gympie region as far west as Kilkivan and as far east as the Cooloola coast. In the past five years, the number of patients at any given time has doubled. Families are accessing support for longer, and they are accessing support earlier. Despite this, the level of real funding to Little Haven has not changed over the past year. This funding is supplied by the Queensland health department. This is not sustainable. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Little Haven received eight new referrals as the local private and public hospitals shut their doors over the holiday period. This took their number of patients up to 80, well over capacity. Two of these patients tragically passed away on New Year's Eve, and two tragically passed away on 2 January. The on call nurses worked in excess of 12 hours a day, putting further pressure on Little Haven's already stretched budget.

Little Haven struggle to meet rising healthcare costs, and the state Labor government is failing to help them. From a federal perspective, specialist palliative care services like Little Haven are not eligible to apply for funding under aged-care packages, even though they are providing vital support to deliver care at the end of life and keeping patients in the place they'd rather be—that is, at home. Little Haven has a structural deficit of half a million dollars, with the shortfall only being partially made up with donations. Gympie's a generous community, which digs deep to support Little Haven. Last month my wife, Sharon, and daughter, Yve, ran in the Gratitude Walk and Fun Run for Little Haven, which raised $10,000. Little Haven can't continue to rely on the gratitude of private citizens to this extent to fund its vital services. When it comes to health care, people ultimately look to government to secure funding. And while palliative care is primarily a responsibility of the states, I believe that the Commonwealth can do more.

While we have fantastic aged-care facilities that receive funding from the Australian government to provide quality of care, 70 per cent of Australians would prefer to pass away at home, but only 14 per cent do so. Indeed, my mother and father-in-law both had their wishes granted, and they passed away at home after long, terminal illnesses. This was only due to the support of Little Haven. Little Haven strives to fulfil this desire of most Australians, with 60 per cent of their patients passing away at home and another 24 per cent spending less than five days in hospital.

I think we can do more for a community driven service like Little Haven. The recent federal budget provided $8.3 million to primary health networks to better coordinate palliative care services in the region. I have discussed the need to properly fund Little Haven with Assistant Minister for Health, David Gillespie, and we both understand how important this service is to the community. More support for Little Haven will deliver better health outcomes for the Gympie region and beyond, bringing the standard of care for those dying closer to other countries in the Western world.

I want to thank Little Haven's business manager, Sue Manton, whom I have known for quite some time, for her tireless work and advocacy. I'll continue to work with her as I call on both state and federal governments to provide support for palliative care in Wide Bay. Palliative care services, especially community driven ones, have long been neglected in Australia. It's essential we treat the dying with the respect and dignity they deserve. These people have built our communities, nursed us and taught us, and we owe them and their families the support they deserve in their final days.

House adjourned at 17:00