The Uncaring Society

Brad, Patricia & Mikhaila Dunn PHOTO Zoe Reynolds

"Whoever gets elected on October 9 has to put the funding in place so there's somewhere for people to go, to get them out of hospital and free up beds. There's nowhere for people to go. Nowhere to get people out of hospital. No nursing homes, no health care workers to look after people in their homes, no funding to pay for health care workers." - Patricia Dunn

Patricia Dunn has been a nurse in the public health system for just under 40 years. Her husband Barry retired fromthe wharves soon after the Patrick dispute. (My husband is a union man. He couldn't stay on after what happened) Son Brad works at P&O, Port Botany. He is married with three children, Mikhaila, 9, Brianna, 7 and Tobias, 4.

"Whoever gets elected on October 9 has to put the funding in place so there's somewhere for people to go, to get them out of hospital and free up beds," says Patricia. "There's nowhere for people to go. Nowhere to get people out of hospital. No nursing homes, no health care workers to look after people in their homes, no funding to pay for health care workers.

"There's 27 people in the ward I work in now, 10 of them are acute patients, the rest are only there because they have no one to look after them in the community, nowhere to go. One of them has been there two years and four months with nowhere to go. There's just no one to care for them. No home care. No funding.

"These are people with spinal injuries, with disabilities, the elderly.

"They send some old people home when they are too frail because there are no nursing homes. It's all down to funding. Lots of people will do the work, but there's no money to pay them. They send people home but they can't cook for themselves, can't shower, can't walk to the bathroom by themselves, much less the shop.

"In the hospitals we don't have enough nurses. The workload is too much. You can't keep them in the workforce. Young people don't want to do double shifts. University courses have taken the hands out of the system. Nurses who train at university don't want to do the dirty work. Don't want to do shift work.

"My mum left 300 days insick leave behind when she left her job," said Brad.

"He lost sleep over that," said Patricia. "You can't take sick leave. The hospitals are too short staffed. Emergency is overloaded with people who can't get to see a doctor or can't afford to pay for one. It's full of people with coughs and colds.

"In the eastern suburbs there's not enough hospitals -- they keep flogging them off as prime real estate to make luxury apartments."

But despite all the problems Patricia said she'd never be admitted to a private hospital and not just because she couldn't afford it. The rooms might be good, but there's no doctors.

"The doctors are all at the public hospitals so if anything goes wrong you're better of there."

"The cost of health care is a problem, too," said Patricia. "People can't afford to see a specialist. We sent a newborn baby home the other day after it had to see a pediatrician. Her parents paid $260 and would only get back $106. They have a premature baby and they are going to have to come back. These people just don't have the money."

A Labor Government would:

• Establish a national Health Reform Commission to report within 12 months on ways to improve the funding and delivery of health services, including hospitals, specialists, GPs, Community health services and aged care services.

• address gaps and duplications in the system caused by separate commonwealth and state funding.

• establish a commonwealth Nursing Officer to provide advice on nursing issues and ensure that the voice of nursing is heard at federal government level.

• create up to 457 additional full time positions for practice nurses where there is a workforce shortage, with an additional 1150 full time practice nurses by 2007.

• extend Medicare to cover services provided by nurses.

• nurses to play an increasing role in providing health care as part of a team with General Practitioners.

• lift Medicare rebate for all bulk-billed consultations to 100 per cent of the scheduled fee as an incentive to restore bulk billing to 80 per cent.

• introduce powerful incentives for doctors to bulk bill in communities around the country, provide an additional $7,500 each year for doctors who bulk bill 80 per cent or more of their patients (more to doctors in the outer metropolitan and regions and remote areas).

• create 3125 undergraduate nursing places and 500 full time postgraduate nursing places.

• provide publicly funded dental care.

John Howard's philosophy is that people should take responsibility for their own healthcare and take out private cover. He created incentives to force you into the private system.