ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Dr MARKEY: Yes.
Mr WOOD: And so is there a program to try and reduce that even further?
Dr MARKEY: From a temporal aspect, the rates nationally have been going up, so while we would
always like it to be more, these rates are good looking at the trend data. We also do very well
compared to the rest of the country, and in particular with the logistic barriers we have in place, with
remoteness and our supply of vaccine etcetera, we do better than the rest of the country. So, we are
always looking at ways at bettering our coverage, including education programs and combating all the
myths out there about immunisation. But for many people it is sometimes a time factor, parents just
do not get the time to do it, so we have to try and reinforce the benefits. As the Chief Health Officer
said, with many diseases, you do not have to have 100% coverage to stop transmission, and that
would be the case with polio, I would imagine, and things like measles as well.
Mr WOOD: One more question, and I hope I have it in the right place, I presume it is the department
that checks the water in Howard Springs, and there has been a lot of money spent on cleaning up
Howard Springs and we still cannot …
Mr VATSKALIS: That was Output 4.1 Environmental Health.
Mr WOOD: Okay. The only other question is in relation to melioidosis. What is concerning, and it has
been brought to my attention in the rural area, that out of 60 bores, 30% are shown to have
melioidosis in it, and I gather that Mark Mayer, through the Menzies School of Health, if doing a lot of
work.
Is the government monitoring melioidosis, especially in the rural area, and is there any connection
between drinking water or even the use of water in a bore that is found to have melioidosis could give
a person melioidosis?
Mr VATSKALIS: I will ask Peter to respond to that one.
Dr MARKEY: There has been at least one episode in the Northern Territory where there melioidosis
was found in the drinking water, and associated, and that was connected with melioidosis the
disease. But as far as our advice goes, as you are aware, it is still at the research stage, we are
looking at bore contamination and it is with Menzies. We do not have a screening program in place for
bores in the rural areas around Darwin, but we do give advice to people about bores and what the
might do. I am happy to provide that advice.
Mr WOOD: If it came to the crunch, can you boil water to rid the melioidosis?
Mr MARKEY: I could not be certain about that. My thinking is it would get rid of melioidosis, but we
usually give advice that water chlorination is the best approach. It is not just drinking; it can be
(inaudible) through showering and things. With people who live in the rural areas, if they do have
immune problems – you might be aware melioidosis is pretty well exclusively people with immune
deficiencies, so people with immune deficiencies need to consider chlorination.
That is basically the advice we give.
Mr WOOD: One thing I hate about Darwin water is taste. I add chlorine.
Mr CHAIRMAN: That concludes consideration of Output 4.2. We will now move on to Output 4.3 –
Alcohol and other Drug Services.
Output 4.3 – Alcohol and other Drug Services
Mr CHAIRMAN: Shadow.
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr CONLAN: Thank you Mr Chair. I have a stack of questions, however I will keep it to a couple.
Minister, the utilisation rates of sobering-up shelter bed hours is at 31% for 2009-10, and again for
2010-11. That strikes me at quite low. Are you able to expand on that, or elaborate as to why it is only
at 31%? This in light of comments made by the Treasurer that 59% of violent crime in the Territory is
alcohol related; it costs the Territory financially $642m a year. We all know the problems relating to
alcohol, yet we are only seeing 31% of those beds utilised. Are you able to elaborate on that?
Ms TOWNSEND: The sobering-up shelter utilisation rate is a figure derived from the total opening
hours of each sobering-up shelter by its bed capacity, and by admissions. What the figure shows is
not necessarily that the sobering-up shelters have unused capacity, it shows the utilisation rate of
those sobering-up shelters at points in time.
Mr CONLAN: Their opening hours, their capacity, equates to 31%.
Ms TOWNSEND: They are fully utilised 31% of the time. However, that probably reflects the number
of beds they have and the admission characteristics of each of those SUSs. For example, we know in
Alice Springs the sobering up shelter is particularly busy from 4 pm to say 11 pm, and that is probably
a feature of the opening hours in Alice Springs, and also the referral patterns of the police and the
patrols that take people there. Because they have a finite number of beds, those services will be fully
utilised for that period. We also know they have periods before and after the six hour admission
period where they are not well used.
Mr CONLAN: In other words, it is at peak capacity of 31% of the time.
Minister, admissions to sobering-up shelters, how do you arrive at those figures? You have an
estimate of 18 000, and again this coming financial year of 18 000 admissions. Is that based on past
admissions and you estimating the same through the doors again, or how do you come to that figure.
Ms TOWNSEND: We have been recording sobering-up shelter admissions for many, many years,
and the estimate of admissions is based on trend data over time. What we were observing is a
reduction in SUS admissions - a very long term but gradual reduction. We have seen some reversal
of that trend, so we will revise our estimate for next year. We were looking at a trend, but have seen a
reduction from the early 2000s. We have seen some increase in those admissions in the last couple
of years so we will revise our estimate.
Mr CONLAN: Do you know where that estimate will be going?
Ms TOWNSEND: Yes, we are predicting, based on our full year estimate for 2009-10, that the
admissions will be 20 771, which is about 400 more than last financial year.
Mr CONLAN: Are you able to give the occupancy rates of those sobering-up shelters? Provide those
on notice even
Ms TOWNSEND: What we have is the SUS utilisation rate, which I appreciate is …
Mr CONLAN: What is the SUS?
Ms TOWNSEND: The sobering-up shelter utilisation rate, which is an expression of that. We would
have to think through the methodology of occupancy.
Mr CONLAN: You do not keep that data?
Ms TOWNSEND: We actually have a pretty rich database around the sobering-up shelter in referral
payments and admissions, so we may be able to, but we may have to apply some thinking. I do not
Dostları ilə paylaş: |