Kelly Vincent – 5RPH Interview on Transforming Health Select Committee
16/09/2015
On 16th September 2015, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station 5RPH to discuss the call for a Select Committee to be established to inquire into the Government’s Transforming Health proposal. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Pam Green: It’s time now to welcome to 5RPH Dignity for Disability MLC, Kelly Vincent. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Pam.
Pam Green: So Kelly we’ve heard there’s going to be a Select Committee of the Upper House to inquire into the Government’s Transforming Health proposal?
Kelly Vincent: Yes, that’s correct. Dignity for Disability as well as other members of the cross bench in fact every member and political party other than the Government I believe, have joined together to call for a Select Committee of the Parliament to look into Transforming Health as a project. Because, as I’m sure you and your listeners would be aware Pam there’s been a lot of concern about the lack of clarity around this proposal and how it will look on the ground. I don’t think there’s any denying that the aims of the proposal are laudable, everybody wants a quality, accessible, affordable healthcare system which will exist and be laudable enough to continue to exist long into the future. But unfortunately there has been significant concerns around the lack of clarity about how these proposals might look in practice. So we’re calling for a Committee of the Parliament to welcome submissions from anyone in the community who has concerns about this project or indeed who wants to put on the record anything that’s good about it. So that we can go through this project step by step and make recommendations to the Government and the Parliament about how this project should proceed.
Pam Green: So Kelly what concerns do you have about the actual process of Transforming Health?
Kelly Vincent: Well as I said Pam, I think there is a significant lack of clarity around how things will actually look on the ground. Dignity for Disability have been contacted by many constituents with concerns particularly around areas like rehabilitation services and moving services away from Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre into more hospital settings. Now it’s interesting that if you look at the Government’s own website for the Royal Adelaide Hospital of which Hampstead is a campus…
Pam Green: Mmhm
Kelly Vincent: It actually talks about the fact that often rehabilitation is not best suited to happen in a purely hospital or purely clinical setting. Hampstead has things like the gardens for people staying there to walk around in and get mental health benefits. There are also hydrotherapy pools and other services including prosthetics and orthotics services, that we’re very concerned won’t continue to be as accessible if moved into a hospital setting. So there are a lot of significant concerns around how a lot of these proposals will look on the ground and I think it’s also important to point out that some of the proposals in this project have already been reversed. One example was the proposed closure of the Flinders Medical Centre Neonatal Intensive Care Unit because it turned out that the data the Government was using to justify that proposed closure was very inaccurate. The number of babies that they thought were being assisted by that unit were drastically underestimated. And so Dignity for Disability certainly joined with many members of the community lobbying against that closure and we were in the end successful in getting that. While we’re very pleased to have done that it’s very concerning that this is the second time that the Government has tried to close the Flinders Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and this is the second time that they’ve failed.
Pam Green: Mmhm
Kelly Vincent: We may yet have to have this battle again. So essentially what we’re asking for here is a conversation to go into the details of this proposal so that we can see if all the data being used for this proposal is correct and if it is all correct and all these proposals are well and good and justified then the Government has nothing to hide. And they shouldn’t be worried about the Parliament wanting to get some of these concerns on the record to investigate them and give South Australian’s the chance to have a voice, particularly given that all South Australian’s at some point in their lives will interact with the health system and pay for it as taxpayers. So we absolutely need to hear the voices of South Australian’s at the table and we think a committee is a good way to do that.
Pam Green: So Kelly what can people do if they share your concerns?
Kelly Vincent: Well the Committee is yet to be established. The Liberal Opposition will move in the Parliament that the Committee be established in the coming sitting weeks. But as I said it’s very obvious that there is support for this Committee to be established given that every party except the Labor Government support the establishment of this Committee; including Dignity for Disability, The Greens, Family First, the Liberal Opposition obviously, and Nick Xenophon group member, John Darley. So it’s obvious that we have the support there to establish it. It will just take a few weeks to get it up and running and to appoint a secretary and things like that. So we’ll certainly keep you in the loop for when the Committee is up and running and has its membership and is ready to take submissions. But for now I wanted to keep people in the loop and to let them know that this opportunity is coming up so if people have things that they want to put on the record and put into a submission, they can start putting that together. It doesn’t have to be anything too comprehensive it may just be dot points and there will be some opportunity to give evidence orally if you don’t want to write everything down. So at this point I want to let everyone know that it’s coming up and I’d like to encourage everyone to start thinking about what they’d like to put on the record if they want to present to the Committee. And we’ll certainly keep you in the loop as the Committee progresses.
Pam Green: Thanks for your time today Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Thank Pam, that’s a pleasure.
Pam Green: Dignity for Disability MLC, Kelly Vincent.
