Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2019 I ran as an independent candidate for the state seat of Cabramatta, which is in the Fowler electorate. One of the issues I discovered during my community consultation was that our local hospital, Fairfield Hospital, had no electricity capacity load. Basically, our hospital did not have enough electricity to enable wi-fi or provide enough power for basic needs, such as air conditioning and other equipment to assist in the care of patients. I was shocked, to say the least, that our Fairfield Hospital, in one of the neediest electorates, with a significant disadvantaged population, seemed to function like one in a Third World country. So I campaigned on the issue passionately.

Twelve months or so later, at our council lunar new year festival, a couple of young women approached me on the street and thanked me for advocating on the electricity issue. They said: 'You don't know the difference you've made. We work in the basement of the hospital to treat patients, and we can't treat them, as it's too hot and we don't have air conditioning. But it looks like now we will.' With those words, they disappeared into the crowd as our community continued to celebrate the lunar new year. I didn't get the chance to ask their names, but I was so moved and touched by these two women who stopped to ask me to continue to advocate for our community, and I will continue to do so.

Fairfield Hospital is a critical institution for most people in my electorate. Since its construction in 1988, it has received only $7 million in upgrades. Compare this to nearby hospitals: Liverpool Hospital, $1.4 billion in funding; Bankstown, $1.3 billion in funding; Blacktown, $700 million in funding; and Ryde, nearly $480 million in funding. Rouse Hill Hospital has been promised $700 million by the New South Wales opposition leader, Chris Minns, and $300 million by the Perrottet government for the upcoming March election.

For many politicians, I'm sure that hospital funding is a great way to win votes in marginal seats, but, for me, hospital funding means providing my constituents with the basic health care that every Australian is entitled to. Why has Fairfield Hospital become the forgotten hospital? Why are we constantly underfunded and under-resourced? Why are our people and community being treated as less than those in the vicinity of the above hospitals? We pay taxes like everyone else. Why are we constantly forgotten or just left with the crumbs?

This lack of funding and resources has a profound human impact. A local carpenter from Abbotsbury shared his story with me about how he injured his hand on a circular saw at work. He drove to Fairfield Hospital, where he was given a paracetamol for pain. It turned out that the hospital had run out of morphine. There weren't enough staff at the time, so he was transferred to Liverpool Hospital to get treated, but, eventually, he had a finger amputated.

An elderly gentleman went to Fairfield Hospital to be treated for his liver, but the hospital doesn't have a radiologist after 5 pm on weekdays, and it doesn't have one on weekends. The CT scans would need to be sent to a private company who send the images overseas to be read by doctors, as they do not have a radiologist on site after hours. His daughter said they were grateful to the nursing staff and doctors at the hospital who were able to see her father straightaway, but he had to wait three days before being transferred to Liverpool Hospital. While she waited with her dad for the transfer, she looked out the window to see a queue of people lining up outside the demountable Hand Clinic, in the heat. She saw a gentleman lying on the grass, clearly trying to make himself comfortable in a line that had barely moved for hours. The Hand Clinic is supposed to service the largest number of hand patients in the Southern Hemisphere, and yet it operates out of a demountable. We are a First World country, and yet here we are, providing Third World services to our community. It's stories like these that make me feel like our community has been unfairly targeted and treated like second-class citizens by the establishment.

That lack of funding, though, does not mean a lack of commitment on the part of the doctors, nurses, staff or volunteers at Fairfield Hospital. Sammi Sayed is a local resident, who, at 80 years of age, has been a volunteer there for a very long time. She's an example of the strong community spirit we have in Fowler. She volunteers to support people who might have problems navigating the hospital system. She says that, when she sees patients take out their frustrations on hospital staff about excessive wait times, especially nurses at the hospital, she reminds them to be grateful to be living in Australia—a country with a reputation for excellent health care. Yes, the system is strained, but it is the government of the day that we must hold to account for the lack of resources our health system currently faces and not the people working in the system who are trying to help us, especially under pressure. We elect our government to govern for all. We elect our government to make responsible decisions that will ensure our people and citizens have equitable and deserved access to quality care.

I'm very proud to say that the upgrades on the electricity loading will be completed in the next month or so. That's almost four years ago to this month since my campaign in 2019. I want to thank the CEO of the South Western Sydney Local Health District, Amanda Larkin, and the Fairfield Hospital General Manager, Paul Crowe, for their commitment to our hospital. I also want to acknowledge the work of the other hospital in my electorate, Liverpool Hospital. They have seen major upgrades and delivered incredible services with first-class facilities. But, while this is good news, the pandemic showed why this disproportionate funding was, ultimately, detrimental. Fairfield Hospital still has some of the highest emergency department admissions in New South Wales and, on top of that, the fourth-highest increase of patients who left without getting treatment in the June to September 2022 quarter. This is due to a number of factors which came to light after many community consultations with local health professionals in Fairfield Hospital.

In my health forums with the Vietnamese- and Assyrian-speaking GPs in the area, they told me that many of our migrant communities do not differentiate between a health clinic and a hospital. With a population with one of the highest rates of non-English speaking people in the country, it's important that electorates like Fowler have community outreach programs to inform them on where they need to go if they have a health issue.

Lack of bulk-billing and GP shortages are causing a flow-on effect on emergency departments. Patients are having to wait weeks to get a GP appointment. If they get sick or if their conditions worsen, their best bet for immediate care is the ED. Therefore, to fix the hospital system, we must also look at reforming Medicare, and we need to ensure this overall provides equal access to health care. The price you pay for your doctor should not determine your level of health care.

Together with Mayor Frank Carbone and my Fairfield Council colleagues, we have been pushing for state and federal funding for a multicultural health and wellness centre. This will ensure that multicultural health services can be provided to patients. Ultimately, this will take the pressure off the GPs and hospitals and offer community support for those of non-English speaking backgrounds.

I understand the federal and state governments have jointly announced a rollout of urgent-care clinics across Australia. If you won't fund our hospital, at least give us one of these urgent-care clinics in Fowler, for goodness sake. This will take the pressure off the emergency departments and, ultimately, ease the burden on our GPs and staff as well. Health care is a basic human right to every single Australian. Many in this House will say that hospitals are state funded and it's a state matter, but health care is not just a matter for one level of government. I acknowledge that the New South Wales opposition leader, Chris Minns, recently pledged $150 million to Fairfield Hospital over three years, but I'll wait and see if he will actually deliver on his commitment or not, as compared to the $700,000 to Rouse Hill.

In the lead-up to the last federal election, there was a $200 million pledge by the Albanese government to the Flinders Medical Centre, which looks set to go ahead. This just shows that, if any government, state or federal, wants to fund hospitals, they will. So, today in this House of the people, I ask the government, federal and state—the major parties on both sides—to really look hard at their objectives, after being elected to government for the country and their state. Be bold. Make decisions and develop policies that will ensure every Australian can equitably access health care and services.