❓ The Minister for Health addresses regional health issues in Tom Price and Geraldton, focusing on speech therapy services and Aboriginal health. He proposes innovative solutions using telehealth and local expertise to improve access to care in remote areas.
AnsweredQoN 504Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
MINISTER FOR HEALTH — VISIT TO GERALDTON AND TOM PRICE
I understand that the minister visited Tom Price last week to address certain regional health issues facing residents in the Pilbara. Can the minister advise whether he met the Tom Price District Hospital community action group during his visit; and, if so, can he run through some of the outcomes of the meeting? Dr K.D. HAMES
I understand that the minister visited Tom Price last week to address certain regional health issues facing residents in the Pilbara. Can the minister advise whether he met the Tom Price District Hospital community action group during his visit; and, if so, can he run through some of the outcomes of the meeting? Dr K.D. HAMES
AnswerView source ↗
It is a pity that the member for Pilbara is not in the chamber, as I was going to have a go at him for his comments the other day. However, I thank the member for Geraldton for the question; it was very good. We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: It is a pity that the member for Pilbara is not in the chamber, as I was going to have a go at him for his comments the other day. However, I thank the member for Geraldton for the question; it was very good. We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
It is a pity that the member for Pilbara is not in the chamber, as I was going to have a go at him for his comments the other day. However, I thank the member for Geraldton for the question; it was very good. We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: It is a pity that the member for Pilbara is not in the chamber, as I was going to have a go at him for his comments the other day. However, I thank the member for Geraldton for the question; it was very good. We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
It is a pity that the member for Pilbara is not in the chamber, as I was going to have a go at him for his comments the other day. However, I thank the member for Geraldton for the question; it was very good. We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We stopped first in Geraldton and we got the opportunity to have discussions with the Department of Indigenous Affairs staff about local Aboriginal issues. However, we also met the member for Pilbara’s good friend Sandy Davies—I am sure he is a friend of yours too, Mr Speaker—of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. As we all know, he is a very outspoken gentleman. However, he gave a very impressive presentation on the services the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service provides. If all Aboriginal medical services were as good as that service, there could be a huge increase in the services that we provide to Aboriginal people. We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We did visit Tom Price as well, which was at the request of the parents of a child with a speech disability. The member for Alfred Cove’s committee has presented to the Parliament a report that examined the provision of those sorts of services by occupational therapists, speech therapists, school nurses and the like. We know that there is a major problem in the huge shortfall in services. However, the speech therapist who visits Tom Price and Paraburdoo is now located in Port Hedland and flies in once a month to provide the service. The therapist gets there late in the morning, is there for only that day and the next morning and then goes off again. It is very difficult to provide adequate therapy. About 20 parents turned up to the meeting in Tom Price, all of whom have children in similar circumstances. It is very difficult to get that sort of access for their care. It was put to me that they desperately needed an increase in services. One option is to employ someone based in that town. It would be a great thing if we could get someone based in Tom Price, but currently, as I said, that person is based in Port Hedland. We have tried before to get someone and it is has been very difficult. We could spend a lot of time advertising for people to come to a new town. Although Paraburdoo and Tom Price are beautiful towns, they generally stay six months and the whole problem starts again and we have to re-recruit and re-sort out housing. We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
We therefore discussed an interesting concept while we were in Tom Price, which I intend to explore. There are people already living in the town—often partners of people working in the mining industry who are former teachers or in some cases former nurses—who have some degree of expertise and who could contribute that expertise and assist people, particularly those with a speech disability. If I can employ those people in the town, perhaps even two or three, they would then go to a person’s house with the latest technology available in portable telehealth. They would work with the trainer, the mother and the child on regular upgrades of the teaching program that those kids need, particularly giving the ones with speech disabilities early access to training. It is an alternative method of providing those services and would not be as good as employing a trained, qualified speech therapist. However, I believe it is a method that we should consider using in country regions, given the improvements in technology in a range of areas, including specialist medical treatment in other areas, to make sure that someone in the town is doing the work and linking up directly one-on-one with patients to provide that expertise wherever the patients might be: Perth, Port Hedland or wherever. It is an option that we intend to explore and if we are successful in finding someone to do that job in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, we might be able to extrapolate that out to the rest of regional and rural Western Australia.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.