ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Ms STACKHOUSE: But there is a program of removing the grass over the Dry Season.
Mr WOOD: It used
to be my kind of work, too, if done gently and quietly at the right time, you can do
it, I must admit. There are not all those cars there all the time, so you adjust your maintenance within
vehicles (inaudible).
Ms STACKHOUSE: That is true, and there are 1212 car parks on the campus.
Mr WOOD: Minister, are there any plans to get staff a car park?
Mr VATSKALIS: Yes. We have commissioned a study, we
have the study back, and we currently are
trying to find out how we can implement some of the recommendations. Ms Stackhouse can expand
on that.
Ms STACKHOUSE: Yes, there was believed by the consultants to be a shortfall of about 100 car
spots, so we are currently assessing how we would, and where we would put those car parks. There
are also a number of other recommendations around ensuring the safety of where the car spots are,
maintenance of it?
Mr WOOD: Any thought of building a multistorey car park and perhaps using underneath for offices or
for commercial activity?
Ms STACKHOUSE: Yes, multistorey car parks are significantly more expensive …
Mr WOOD: They are.
Ms STACKHOUSE: … than
ground level car parks, to the vicinity of about 10 times the cost per car
space.
Mr WOOD: You are not running out of space, are you?
Ms STACKHOUSE: There is still quite a lot of space out there. My preference is that we actually
would increase the availability of parking for bicycles, as well as increasing
the number of buses that
come through the Royal Darwin Hospital so that public transport is improved, as well as the fitness of
our staff and patients.
Mr WOOD: We are getting our bicycle path to Howard Springs and I think there is nearly a direct
connection to the hospital. By the time we get there, we might need to be an acute patient, that is the
only problem.
Minister, in relation to Patient Assistance Travel, and I refer to
a letter that was in, I think,
The
Centralian Advocate on 27 April, and it is related to a lady who was declined Alice Springs patient
travel, and basically because someone had said to her Caucasian people usually find their own way
home. She felt that that was racist and that she should be entitled to the same treatment as anyone
else. I can table this letter.
Mr VATSKALIS: Please.
Mr WOOD: Minister, is Patient Assistance Travel available to people who are returning from hospital
to remote areas of the NT? Is it available to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people? How many
Indigenous people have been
assisted through this service, and how many non-Indigenous people
have been assisted through this service? I think this question needs to be answered publicly.
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr VATSKALIS: Let me assure you that PATS applies to all Territorians, irrespective of colour, or
ethnicity or cultural background, and we do not ask people if they are Aboriginal people or non-
Aboriginal people when we provide PATS. PATS is provided to people if they need it to travel
interstate because the service is not available in the Northern Territory. Our government is quite
generous. Our PATS is equivalent to PATS systems in other states. We have actually put $1.5m
recurrent to enhance it, on top of the $2m in the 2008-09 financial year. We provide an escort for
every patient travelling interstate
for surgery, grant transport allowance of $40 for return interstate trip,
increased the commercial accommodation rate to $35 per night, and increased the private vehicle
allowance if people choose to travel to 15 cents per kilometre. It does not apply to a particular group
of people, it applies to all Territorians.
I do not know why this person would have received that response. I would like you to table that letter
and I will follow it up.
Mr WOOD: Okay. Minister, I did not ask this question last year, but I have
asked it on other
occasions. Could you give the details of the number of abortions, non-Indigenous and Indigenous, in
Northern Territory hospitals over the last five years? Do you have a counselling service in the
hospitals or Health department that encourages and assists mothers to continue with their pregnancy
and, if not, why not? And should not the government be at least trying to reduce the number of
abortions?
Mr VATSKALIS: Member for Nelson, terminations of pregnancies is an individual choice and also, in
some cases, medical choice either for the health of the mother or because of the health of the baby. I
will not make a comment on that if it is right or wrong.
Mr WOOD: I have not asked you to, minister.
Mr VATSKALIS: In 2009-10 there were about 417 abortions throughout the Territory. There were 334
in
Royal Darwin Hospital, 82 in Alice Springs, and one in Gove.
Mr WILSON: The figures the minister has just released quite correctly 417, those are not the full year
figures; those were the figures that were available for this report.
Mr WOOD: My original question was: can I get the numbers of abortions, non-Indigenous and
Indigenous, in Northern Territory hospitals over the last five years so I can see a trend.
Mr CHAIRMAN: Is that on notice then?
Mr WILSON: We will take that on notice.
Mr VATSKALIS: I have only got the three years, but I can give you the five years. But I do not have a
breakdown of Indigenous or non-Indigenous but, again it is a procedure offered to all Territorians
irrespective if they are Indigenous or non-Indigenous.
Mr WOOD: That is true, minister, but when you read your Northern Territory annual report that is not
the way you
do things, you break them up accordingly.
Mr VATSKALIS: We can provide this information to you.
________________________________
Question on Notice No 7.13
Mr WOOD: Minister, can you give us details of the number abortions, non-Indigenous and Indigenous
in Northern Territory hospitals over the last five yeas?
Mr CHAIRMAN: And that is question No 7.13.