❓ Mr. Cook questions the Health Minister about the forced relocation of Mrs. Treby, a terminally ill Parkinson's patient, from an aged-care facility due to contractual provisions. The Minister defends the contract, citing the need for transitional care beds and expressing confidence in the service provider's compassion.
AnsweredQoN 530Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
AGED CARE —
TRANSITIONAL CARE PROVISIONS — MARION TREBY
530. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
On behalf of the member for Mandurah, I acknowledge
constituents from the Arcadia Waters Retirement Village in his electorate who
are in the public gallery today.
I refer to the plight of Mrs Marion Treby who, despite being
in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease and having only months to
live, is being forced to move from a Kingsley aged-care facility as a result of
the government's contractual provisions regarding transitional beds.
(1) Why did
the minister sign a contract with the service provider when this is a clear
consequence of that action?
(2) Will the minister now intervene to stop this happening to
Mrs Treby and others in her situation?
TRANSITIONAL CARE PROVISIONS — MARION TREBY
530. Mr R.H. COOK to the
Minister for Health:
On behalf of the member for Mandurah, I acknowledge
constituents from the Arcadia Waters Retirement Village in his electorate who
are in the public gallery today.
I refer to the plight of Mrs Marion Treby who, despite being
in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease and having only months to
live, is being forced to move from a Kingsley aged-care facility as a result of
the government's contractual provisions regarding transitional beds.
(1) Why did
the minister sign a contract with the service provider when this is a clear
consequence of that action?
(2) Will the minister now intervene to stop this happening to
Mrs Treby and others in her situation?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2)
Let us look at how we came to sign the contract in the first place to get a
good sense of where this is going and where it should be going. We have had
problems across Australia, particularly in Western Australia, with a lack of
aged-care places. As a result, a lot of people come into hospital and get
treated but have nowhere to go. They are stuck in a hospital with no facility
to go to. We critically needed to get those people back to their own homes.
That was often difficult. We had a program called transitional care, something
that existed under both the Labor government and ours. The former federal Labor
government agreed to expand that service in Western Australia to get aged
people back into their own homes, so we went out for tender. Who won the
tender? It was won by a group that is led by Penny Flett, who has won an Order
of Australia for her service to aged people. She is in charge of that facility.
That group has a facility that was already doing about two�thirds transitional
care and about one-third aged care. Another organisation called Aegis was doing
a lot of transitional care before. It has now decided that it wants to focus on
aged care. So we have an organisation like that that will provide greater aged
care and an organisation like that managed by Penny Flett that wants to deal
more with transitional care. Both those things are critically important.
I do not have the numbers with me
but something in the order of 36 people had to move. A significant number of
those people have been moved already and I think there are 14 left to go. Mrs Treby
is one of them. I heard Penny Flett; I do not know whether the member bothered
to listen to the interview with her, but if he had he would have heard her say
that Brightwater Care Group was not evicting anyone. She was quite angry about
people using the word ''eviction''. She said that that person was
not being evicted, and that she was working to find a place either in another
of Brightwater's aged care facilities or with somebody else. As I said,
there are now 100 extra positions available. With the strong support of the
member for Mirrabooka, we have been helping Myvista provide new aged care
places up near Mirrabooka; there will be more than 100 new aged-care places
there. It is very difficult and traumatic for an elderly lady like that. I am
not aware of her medical condition, but I have great confidence that, as
compassionate as I think this government is, Ms Flett has greater compassion
than I do; hence her winning of an Order of Australia for care of the aged, and
she is the one with responsibility. Members opposite should remember that the
former Labor government's funding ended up in the same position —
Mr R.H. Cook interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Kwinana!
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
contract is just for provision of services; we do not dictate to companies how
they manage their businesses. This is a not-for-profit organisation that
provides fantastic aged-care services in Western Australia, and I think we need
to have confidence in its ability to manage that. An ex-Labor candidate has
gone out and made a big issue out of this, but I think what he needs to do is
to sit down with Penny Flett, work it through with her, and find an outcome
that suits the poor lady who is in this situation.
Let us look at how we came to sign the contract in the first place to get a
good sense of where this is going and where it should be going. We have had
problems across Australia, particularly in Western Australia, with a lack of
aged-care places. As a result, a lot of people come into hospital and get
treated but have nowhere to go. They are stuck in a hospital with no facility
to go to. We critically needed to get those people back to their own homes.
That was often difficult. We had a program called transitional care, something
that existed under both the Labor government and ours. The former federal Labor
government agreed to expand that service in Western Australia to get aged
people back into their own homes, so we went out for tender. Who won the
tender? It was won by a group that is led by Penny Flett, who has won an Order
of Australia for her service to aged people. She is in charge of that facility.
That group has a facility that was already doing about two�thirds transitional
care and about one-third aged care. Another organisation called Aegis was doing
a lot of transitional care before. It has now decided that it wants to focus on
aged care. So we have an organisation like that that will provide greater aged
care and an organisation like that managed by Penny Flett that wants to deal
more with transitional care. Both those things are critically important.
I do not have the numbers with me
but something in the order of 36 people had to move. A significant number of
those people have been moved already and I think there are 14 left to go. Mrs Treby
is one of them. I heard Penny Flett; I do not know whether the member bothered
to listen to the interview with her, but if he had he would have heard her say
that Brightwater Care Group was not evicting anyone. She was quite angry about
people using the word ''eviction''. She said that that person was
not being evicted, and that she was working to find a place either in another
of Brightwater's aged care facilities or with somebody else. As I said,
there are now 100 extra positions available. With the strong support of the
member for Mirrabooka, we have been helping Myvista provide new aged care
places up near Mirrabooka; there will be more than 100 new aged-care places
there. It is very difficult and traumatic for an elderly lady like that. I am
not aware of her medical condition, but I have great confidence that, as
compassionate as I think this government is, Ms Flett has greater compassion
than I do; hence her winning of an Order of Australia for care of the aged, and
she is the one with responsibility. Members opposite should remember that the
former Labor government's funding ended up in the same position —
Mr R.H. Cook interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Kwinana!
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
contract is just for provision of services; we do not dictate to companies how
they manage their businesses. This is a not-for-profit organisation that
provides fantastic aged-care services in Western Australia, and I think we need
to have confidence in its ability to manage that. An ex-Labor candidate has
gone out and made a big issue out of this, but I think what he needs to do is
to sit down with Penny Flett, work it through with her, and find an outcome
that suits the poor lady who is in this situation.
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