Dutton missed real issue with refugee medical care

Peter Dutton says refugees will bump Australians from healthcare, but it’s already happening to locals on Manus, despite millions of our taxpayer dollars funding a clinic there, writes Marian Faa.

Refugees could displace sick Australians from the public healthcare system according to Peter Dutton’s latest attack on the medevac bill, but on Manus Island it is already happening to locals.

Last week, a 72-year-old Papua New Guinean woman reportedly slept the night on a rickety wooden bench outside Lorengau General Hospital while two critically-ill refugees occupied beds inside.

The elderly woman’s daughter, Ruth Francis, was outraged at the fact her sick mother was denied a safe place to sleep.

But it wasn’t the refugees she held to blame.

Instead, Ms Francis pointed to the international hospital that is getting millions from Australian taxpayers to take care of refugees, but regularly transfers them to the PNG public system.

“It’s because of the refugees that they are here on Manus, getting paid,” she said.

Fierce politicking over the issue of refugee detention has consumed the media in recent weeks but one side of the story has been ignored.

Local people on Manus could hold the key to raising serious questions about how millions of Australian taxpayer dollars are spent offshore.

“Where is the money going?”

Lorengau hospital on Manus Island. Picture: Jason Garman/Amnesty International

This is the question I have heard again and again from Manus locals.

I took an interest in their side of the story, because in some ways I consider myself one of them.

In 1994 I was born in Lorengau General Hospital, the same place where refugees now receive emergency after-hours treatment when the private clinic is closed.

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended Peter Dutton’s attack on the medevac bill, saying it all came down to “simple math”.

“If we’re going to treat more people in Australia, then obviously they’re going to take the place of people getting that treatment anyway,” he told ABC Radio.

But this “simple math” does not stack up on foreign shores.

On the same day Mr Dutton made comments about medevac, his department quietly agreed to fork out more taxpayer money to Pacific International Hospital.

RELATED: Our nation has a black and shrivelled soul

Since May last year, PIH has been engaged to run a small private medical centre for refugees on Manus Island, but the contract for this has still not been made final.

According to a spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs:

“PIH has been delivering primary health care services in PNG since 1 May 2018 under Letter of Intent arrangements, while contract negotiations are finalised.

“A further Letter of Intent with PIH has been agreed that will be in effect until 30 June 2019.”

The department made no comment on why negotiations were taking so long.

Lorengau Hospital staff when Marian Faa's parents volunteered as health workers in 1994. Her mother worked as a dietitian, and her father worked as a GP. Picture: supplied

Despite receiving more than $21 million, the PIH clinic on Manus has limited opening hours and refugees complain about the standard of care.

“They don’t do nothing,” Somali refugee Mohammad Ali Abdi claimed.

Mr Abdi claimed PIH doctors declined to send him to Port Moresby for a specialist review following a kidney operation he had in 2016, while in detention.

But for local people, the bigger problem is that PIH transfers patients to the public hospital in Lorengau, which is under-resourced and underfunded.

On a budget of less than $7 million from the PNG government, Lorengau General Hospital operates with not even a third of what PIH gets from Australia.

In comparison to the 500 or so refugees PIH is responsible for, LGH and its medical offshoots must cater to a population of 60,000 across the entire province of Manus.

I asked the Department of Home Affairs if it made any financial contribution to the public hospital but the question was not addressed.

Manus Provincial Health Authority director curative health services, Dr Otto Numan, said refugee patients required complex care and put strain on the public system.

“We only have four cubicles plus two beds in our emergency department. If those are full then we deprive other people of space in the cubicle,” Dr Otto Numan said.

A refugee patient being loaded into an ambulance for transfer. Picture: Marian Faa

Dr Numan said PIH ran a professional service but declined to comment on its financial position.

Others have called for answers over its spending on Manus Island.

I asked the Department of Home Affairs if there was an investigation into the use of taxpayer funds on Manus but my question was not addressed.

In a public statement, the department confirmed relying on Lorengau’s public hospital for refugee care.

RELATED: Dutton is the last person who should judge ‘character’

The department also states that PIH has 24-hour evacuation capabilities and may refer refugee patients to Port Moresby for treatment.

I also asked PIH how it can justify spending $21 million on a facility that defers responsibility to PNG’s underfunded public health system.

A spokesperson said PIH had no comment to make.

Many Australians will see Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison’s comments about the medevac bill as political spin.

On Twitter, a national non-profit healthcare organisation, St Vincent’s Health, said the ministers’ claims were “baseless”.

This is a baseless claim. Public hospitals can accommodate the health needs of asylum seekers without disadvantaging anyone. St Vincent’s is happy to make its hospitals available to provide care to asylum seekers without affecting waiting lists. https://t.co/bDgaCCg8vr

— St Vincent's Health (@StVHealthAust) February 28, 2019

“Public hospitals can accommodate the health needs of asylum seekers without disadvantaging anyone,” the tweet reads.

Australia’s public health system is regarded as one of the best in the world and its health budget for 2019 is $99 billion.

I think it is unlikely that Australians would be put out by refugees who come to our country in desperate need medical care.

But in Papua New Guinea, where the national health budget is about $63 million — a tiny 0.62 per cent of that in Australia — the impact is more realistic.

If the medevac bill will free up local services in Lorengau and ensure more reliable treatment for refugees then it is a win-win in my eyes.

Marian Faa is journalist for the Warwick Daily News.

@marianfaa