Mr PETER BESSELING (Port Macquarie) [5.42 p.m.]: I will speak briefly on the Health Services Amendment (Local Health Networks) Bill 2010. I support the bill. With the introduction of local health networks we are going not so much back to the future but forward to the past. Local health networks will localise decision-making so that we get better clinical outcomes within the hospitals and the network more broadly. Local health networks will be able to gauge the needs and desires of the community and take a holistic approach to health. Community health is a major part of this approach. Members have referred to the need to address simple issues, such as paying bills. Many area health services are far too large and remote. The North Coast Area Health Service is hundreds of kilometres away from the delivery of service in my electorate of Port Macquarie. This makes it difficult to deal with matters that may seem relatively minor to the health service but are a major issue to those providing the services. Local service providers have difficulty coming to an arrangement to pay their bills quickly.

It is a fine balance trying to establish local hospital boards in a large-scale area health service. We need to provide economies of scale. It is important that we are able to meet the health needs of local communities within those local health networks. This bill goes some way to addressing that. As the member for Coffs Harbour said, cancer services are shared between Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour. That arrangement works very well. We must continue on that path, to a certain degree. There are historic inequities in funding for the North Coast. The North Coast is growing rapidly, and that has to be recognised. In the resource distribution formula those inequities were not addressed, certainly in the view of the people of Port Macquarie. Perhaps the Government is making a rod for its own back by having more local hospital networks. That means more local advocacy, rather than people having to deal with a large bureaucracy.

Concerns remain about services that are sent out of the region. The issue of a cardiac catheterisation laboratory in Port Macquarie has been raised in the House. I would like to raise the matter again. People who need this service are sent to Sydney. It is inefficient and an imposition on the people of Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Wauchope and surrounding areas who have to travel to Sydney for this service. There are concerns about the relationship between State and Federal governments. In the past we have seen cost shifting and blame shifting. We welcome the fourth pod funding from the Commonwealth Government that is set to occur in the next few months. However, we need recurrent funding from the State Government. The State Government must step up to the plate and do its job. It is my job to keep applying the pressure on the Government to do so.

Early childhood services and mental health are part of community health. I am concerned when we move to a Federal funding model about the remoteness of the bureaucracy. The further away the point of delivery of hospital and health services from the administration of funding means more layers of bureaucracy to deliver that service. If we focus on local points and the provision of properly funded services, hopefully we can move forward with a better health network. I support the bill.
 

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