Sydney public hospital patients pay up to beat chronic health queues

PATIENTS are paying up to $600 for private treatment to avoid queues at crowded public hospital emergency departments as the state's casualty crisis deepens. Baulkham Hills Private Hospital and Sydney Adventist Hospital, two of three Sydney private hospitals with emergency facilities, reported a 30per cent rise in the number of admissions this year. On Thursday it was reported that most patients were forced to wait an average of eight hours in public hospital emergency rooms.

The nurse unit manager at Baulkham Hills Private, Lea Mitchell, said the number of patients visiting its emergency department had risen by nearly one-third compared with the same period last year. "There are patients who come here because they're not prepared to wait," she said. "We get that all the time. Patients are seen very quickly by the nurse and then they may have to wait a short while for the doctor. The longest anyone has had to wait is three hours." Ms Mitchell said that at the busiest periods, there would be between four and six people waiting. "That's when we're really, really, really busy."

State Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said the numbers flocking to private hospitals were a reflection of the lack of community trust in the public sector. "It's a degree of the frustration of the community," she said. "They know that sometimes you are stuck in an ambulance or a waiting room for hours."

At Sydney Adventist Hospital, which has the state's largest private emergency section, doctors see 21,000 patients a year. Its director of emergency care, Greg McDonald, said most patients pay between $300 and $350 for treatment, with Medicare giving a rebate of about $100. Fees can reach $600 in cases such as heart attacks, which require specialist care and invasive procedures. "People ring us up from the public hospitals and they go, 'I've been waiting here five or six hours and it doesn't look like I've got a chance', and we say, 'Come here. You'll be able to see a doctor sooner'," Dr McDonald said. "We are more generous, more liberal in the way we deal with patients, in the way we try to find them beds."

But in winter, the emergency department is 10 per cent busier, mostly with patients aged older than 75 or younger than 16. Dr McDonald said the hospital treated the same extensive range of emergencies as a public hospital, and often saw trauma cases even though they were officially not meant to. "Sometimes the ambulance brings them to us because they think they need more urgent attention," he said. Dr McDonald is lobbying the Federal Government for funding of the private emergency sector so that they could better supplement the public health system.

However, a spokeswoman for Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott ruled it out, saying hospitals should talk with the State Government instead. Meanwhile, elective surgeries have been postponed at public hospitals in northern Sydney and the Central Coast due to staff shortages caused by a flu and viral outbreaks. The acting chief executive at the region's area health service, Terry Clout, said surgery would be rescheduled as soon as possible.

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Right to tribal law scrapped

Multiculti loses out

ABORIGINAL offenders in the Northern Territory will no longer be able to use customary law to get softer sentences for serious crimes, under the Howard Government's radical intervention into Aboriginal communities. And federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough revealed yesterday that the "just terms" compensation to be offered to Aboriginal traditional owners who have their land taken from them for five years could be provided in many forms, not only in cash. Mr Brough said "rent and improvements", including infrastructure programs, could count as compensation. And he conceded some traditional owners might have to wait a long time until they received any compensation. "What I'm saying is that traditional owners will discuss with the Government, and if ... a particular group ... can't come up with a decision, then there is recourse to the courts," he said.

Mr Brough said the Government would introduce the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill into parliament today, with plans to have the legislation passed by the end of the week.

Labor held a special briefing last night with Kevin Rudd and a caucus sub-committee that included the two Labor MPs from the Territory who have opposed elements of the Howard Government's intervention. The issue has been sensitive in Labor ranks, with the Left opposing crucial elements of the Howard package. The Australian understands that Labor is likely to support the legislation while still articulating the view that the abolition of the permit system for entry to communities is unnecessary. Labor will decide at this morning's caucus meeting how it will respond to thebill.

Mr Brough said the Government's intervention would cost $587 million in the first 12 months, as revealed in The Australian yesterday. Of this, $64.7 million will be spent on policing alcohol bans and pornography, $83.1 million on health checks for indigenous children, $205.8 million on welfare changes and employment initiatives, and $32.8 million on enhanced child protection services and more safe houses, an expansion of alcohol diversionary services for youth and additional childcare.

Mr Brough said the customary law changes were included because the Territory Government had failed to change its laws. "COAG agreed in 2006 that no customary law or cultural practice excuses violence or sexual abuse," he said. "Jurisdictions agreed to amend their laws to reflect this decision. The Australian Government has amended commonwealth law. The NT has so far failed to do so."

The Howard Government's plan contains legislation authorising alcohol bans, the takeover of remote community land under five-year leases and audits of public computers for pornography. Other bills will provide for welfare changes, both in the Territory and nationwide, and the removal of the permit system for Aboriginal land, which restricts access to communities.

The Territory Government said it opposed some of the measures, including the land acquisitions and the removal of the permit system. Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin said her Government only supported measures that would directly result in the protection of children. "Providing unrestricted access to communities by removing permit requirements, leasing land for five years and compulsorily acquiring town camps does not meet these criteria and does not have the support of the (NT) Government," Ms Martin said.

The Howard Government also announced that for the duration of the five-year intervention, all native title land claims would be suspended.

Indigenous people who have their welfare money quarantined by at least 50per cent for wasting their payments on alcohol, drugs or gambling, or failing to send their children to school, will not have the right to appeal against the decision. If they fail to send their children to school, all their welfare payments could be quarantined. Other Australians who face welfare controls will be able to appeal.

Mr Brough yesterday admitted that not all Aboriginal children were turning up to health checks. His office said they had offered a visiting delegation of Territory Aboriginal leaders opposed to the intervention a meeting yesterday afternoon but they had refused the time offered to them.

In other changes to the law, people who try to smuggle alcohol into remote Territory indigenous communities will risk up to 18 months' imprisonment and a $75,000 fine. Those caught with alcohol for personal use will face a fine of $110 for first offences and double that for any subsequent offences. Anyone caught in prescribed areas with more than the equivalent of 1350ml of alcohol will be presumed to have an intent to supply and the maximum penalty will be up to 18 months' jail and $74,800 in fines.

Mr Brough defended the initial $587 million cost of the plan, saying anyone who criticised the expenditure was "either not a parent or doesn't have a soul". "What price do you put on ... a baby of six months of age with gonorrhoea?" Mr Brough said. "Let's say it as it is: that is the price that we're willing to pay to try and prevent that from occurring, to ensure that children actually do have a future."

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Doubt cast over "carbon offset" tree planting

TREE-PLANTING schemes promoted by businesses and rock bands alike to offset carbon emissions do little to combat climate change, according to a think tank. A paper by The Australia Institute released yesterday accuses governments and businesses of exploiting such "fads" to avoid the need for real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. "By diverting people's funds and attention to projects that are unlikely to reduce emissions significantly in the long term, some offset schemes could ultimately do more harm than good," Christian Downie, the author of the report, said. "Tree-planting is the most popular type of carbon offset promoted in Australia but it is, in fact, the least effective for dealing with climate change. "The evidence indicates that offsets from renewable energy are the most effective, followed by those from energy efficiency projects, with forestry projects ranked last."

The comments are a blow to companies that have supported tree-planting to offset their carbon footprints, including BP, Sainsbury's, British Telecom, Orange, Avis and MTV. British rock band Coldplay bought 10,000 mango trees for villagers in Karnataka, in India, to offset the greenhouse gases released as a result of the production of their album A Rush of Blood to the Head. Dido, Atomic Kitten, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kylie Minogue, Kevin Keegan and the Rolling Stones have also promoted tree-planting schemes.

Mr Downie said Australia needed a compulsory accreditation scheme for carbon offset projects. He said there were strong grounds for excluding forestry-based offsets from an emissions trading system in Australia, or at least restricting their use. "Tree-planting, or forestry, cannot secure real, measurable and permanent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions because sooner or later the forest will be felled, burned or destroyed," Mr Downie said. "When (people) buy offsets from a forestry project with their airline ticket, for example, they are actually buying a promise that the immediate emissions from their flight will be gradually offset over the next 100 years. "There can be very little, if any, guarantee that this will actually happen."

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Navy forced to ring triple-0

Armies and navies are bureaucracies and anyone with experience of them will not be surprised by this

An Australian warship was forced to call triple-0 to airlift an injured diver to hospital after it failed to reach anyone at a nearby naval training base, a military board of inquiry has been told. Leading Seaman Timothy Wildin, 24, was airlifted to safety after a near drowning accident on March 27 while stationed on HMAS Parramatta. The board of inquiry also heard it took three attempts and a delay of up to 18 minutes to raise the dive boat where Seaman Wildin was being revived.

He and another diver were attempting to free entangled fishing buoys from one of the ship's propellers about 22km east of Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast when he encountered difficulty. Seaman Wildin was pulled to the surface where he was "vomiting and limp", the ship's on-duty watch commander Lieutenant Megan Fowler told the inquiry.

About 5.40am (AEST), the watch crew observed a flashing light attached to a water buoy about 275m off the right side of the ship, prompting an order to change course. But the attached fishing lines and buoys caught the ship's hull, forcing the crew to stop the engines and commence the dive operation around 6.20am.

The inquiry has yet to hear the details of what happened to Seaman Wildin while under water, but Lt Fowler witnessed the attempts to winch the dive boat onboard the ship. She told the inquiry that conditions were favourable on the day with clear skies, slight seas and 18km/h winds. Giving evidence from her officer-of-the-watch notebook, Lt Fowler said it took multiple attempts to raise the dive boat. The dive boat crew had difficulty connecting the hook from the crane and the boat was initially overloaded with crew and equipment, requiring a number of people to climb aboard via the ship's ladder. "It had been taking a while to raise the boat," Lt Fowler said.

The ship's captain, Commander Lee Goddard, the second witness to appear at the inquiry, agreed the sea and weather conditions did not pose enough risk to postpone the dive operation. But statements he provided prior to the commencement of today's inquiry reveal HMAS Parramatta had offloaded most of its dive equipment in Newcastle during a six-month re-fit operation of the ship that concluded last December. Cmdr Goddard was assigned captain of the ship immediately following the re-fit and was informed about the missing dive equipment in January. He was also told the ship did not have the required dive supervisor. "To be frank, we didn't have a dive capability in January 2007," he told the inquiry. It was not until late February that the problems were rectified and the dive team commenced so much dive training that some was done during off-duty periods. But Cmdr Goddard said an assessment in mid-March determined the dive team was qualified and capable of carrying out operations.

When asked why his crew rang triple-O for civilian rescue assistance, he said they attempted to raise someone at HMAS Creswell naval training base at Jervis Bay but were unsuccessful. "I wasn't surprised triple-0 had been called," Cmdr Goddard said. He said his crew made the logical decision as he ordered the ship towards land in a "sprint to Jervis Bay". Seaman Wildin was eventually airlifted from the ship by NRMA CareFlight to intensive care at the Prince of Wales of Hospital and has since returned to duty. Up to 40 witnesses are expected to appear over the next three weeks of the inquiry.

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