Our health system crisis: CLP Opposition reveals what it would do to fix it
From staffing Howard Springs with overseas nurses to ending fixed-term contracts, the Opposition has put forward their ideas for helping to solve the NT’s health crisis.
Northern Territory
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THE Howard Springs quarantine facility should be staffed by healthcare workers flown in from overseas, the CLP has suggested, freeing up local nurses to staff our ailing Royal Darwin Hospital.
The Opposition has also proposed ending fixed-term contracts and scaling up Palmerston Regional Hospital for aged care capabilities in a bid to relieve pressure on the Top End’s collapsing medical service.
The CLP has even approached federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to consider bringing overseas nurses into Howard Springs, the party’s health spokesman Bill Yan has revealed.
Mr Yan has also urged the Labor Government to reconsider combining both the Top End and Central Australian health services, saying it was taking power away from local communities.
It comes after the fourth Code Yellow in a year was declared for Royal Darwin Hospital last week.
In response, the NT News has been running a series of stories looking to highlight issues and solutions to the Top End’s healthcare system.
RETURN TO SENDER
MR Yan wants to fly international healthcare workers into the Territory to staff the Howard Springs quarantine facility.
He said the proposal would help address concerns after the NT government took control of the facility earlier this year and recruited 400 staff to expand it.
Many staffing issues in NT Health have widely been speculated to have stemmed from the flow of frontline workers from the Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals to Howard Springs.
“Let’s recruit international nurses to work at Howard Springs, and to undertake specific Covid-related duties, like swabbing and contact tracing – and bring back our NT health professionals from the Centre of National Resilience to Royal Darwin Hospital and across the NT, to alleviate pressure on our main tertiary hospital and our broader health system,” Mr Yan said.
He also called on the NT government to hand back control of Howard Springs to the Commonwealth.
NO CUTS TO PALMO
THE CLP has vowed it wouldn’t cut emergency department staffing at the Palmerston Regional Hospital, saying “tens of thousands of Territorians living in Palmerston and the rural area shouldn’t be punished”.
But at the same time, the facility should be scoped out for other uses to help ease pressure on Royal Darwin Hospital.
“Palmerston Hospital should be explored to care for aged care and dementia patients, as well as mental health patients, while the Gunner Government constructs long-overdue dedicated facilities,” Mr Yan said.
NO MORE CONTRACTS
THE CLP has called for fixed-term contracts, such as those for junior doctors, to be done away with in favour of permanent positions within NT Health.
This measure, Mr Yan said would “provide job certainty and security to health professionals looking to relocate to the NT.
“The CLP supports an immediate and targeted recruitment campaign for properly-trained international nurses and other health care staff to be brought to the Territory,” he said.
STALL THE MERGER
A MOOTED merging of the Top End and Central Australian medical services, branded internally as “Better Together” by NT Health, should be scrapped according to the CLP.
Mr Yan, whose seat Namatjira surrounds Alice Springs, expressed concern about the merger which was passed in legislation in May and could lead to the scrapping of “local health decision-making”.
“We need local decision making to ensure the most appropriate health care is tailored for Territorians whether they live in Karama or Kintore,” Mr Yan said.
He said decentralisation was vital to ensure “decision-making isn’t solely driven from Darwin and to avoid confusion within the Department as well as in the regions and remote communities”.
Mr Yan said NT Health needed to be brought back into shape, in order to address chronic health issues in the community which contributed to the Territory’s high rates of alcohol-related harm and violence.
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