Let’s just fix our hospitals

EDITORIAL: It is a rare event indeed for any public servant to have the courage to put their job on the line and make such a dramatic stand. For that, Dr Frank O’Keeffe deserves full credit.

Health Minister Michael Ferguson. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE.

RETIRED Hobart anaesthetist Dr Michael Hodgson makes a good point: “Couldn’t, for once in their life, the Government and the Opposition unite” to fix the state’s health system. He’s referring to the system currently so in need of repair that a senior doctor on Monday saw fit to dramatically interrupt the Health Minister during a press conference to blow the whistle on bed shortages — saying, memorably, that any injection of funds for surgeries in Tasmania was as useful as “putting petrol in a car that is up on blocks”.

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That interruption by staff specialist Frank O’Keeffe became the main topic of the Opposition’s attack in Question Time in State Parliament yesterday. And little wonder. It is a rare event indeed for any public servant to have the courage to put their job on the line and make such a dramatic stand. For that, Dr O’Keeffe deserves full credit.

Health Minister Michael Ferguson admitted yesterday that he had initially been caught off-guard by the interruption, which is why he looked so startled in the memorable vision of the event captured by the television cameras.

But, to his credit, he later arranged to meet with Dr O’Keeffe to discuss his concerns. Afterwards, the Minister acknowledged that the doctor had a point — and that there were pressures on the availability of public hospital beds in Tasmania.

“I am not embarrassed,” Mr Ferguson said yesterday. “I am not concerned (that the issues were raised), I am not angry.” He added, one assumes through teeth that were firmly gritted: “What was said is fine, and the Government will respond to those concerns.” But then: “... under Labor the car was going very fast in reverse.” Seriously! Can our politicians not go five minutes without playing politics?

Mr Ferguson has been the Health Minister since soon after Labor lost office in 2014 — more than a full four years ago. At some point in all big jobs you have to start taking responsibility yourself, and stop throwing stones at the previous person in the chair.

To be fair, however, his comments were in reaction to questioning by Labor in Parliament. And Labor was also trying to score some political points.

Opposition Leader Rebecca White accused the Minister of having been condescending when he instructed a clinical director in attendance at the ill-fated press conference to “just address that”.

“It was,” Ms White claimed, “the most appalling demonstration by any government official I have seen in a long time (and) that is saying a lot given what we have just seen for the last week in Canberra.”

Well, seeing as you raised it, Ms White: the events last week in Canberra were the perfect example of what voters dislike most about their politicians — when personal ambition and thirst for political advancement get in the way of serving the constituents.

And so wouldn’t it be refreshing if today the Hodgman Government and the Opposition announced they would put politics aside to work together as a team to address the issues we all know are plaguing our state’s public hospital system? Imagine the Health Minister and his Labor shadow sitting down to work on a fix, co-operatively — just because it matters. Sadly, however, the brutal reality is that such an outcome would be like a car that flies: pure fantasy.