Greens secure funding for One Stop Shop disability clinic

Today in Parliament Abigail passed a call for NSW Health to fund on a trial basis the One Stop Shop disability clinic in Westmead Hospital, which is currently operated entirely by volunteers.

Abigail said:

(1) That this House notes the One Stop Shop clinic operated at Westmead Hospital, which serves adults with complex disabilities who have difficulty accessing basic health services, and further notes that:

(a) the clinic is unique in that it provides opportunistic sedation to patients, which allows the practitioner to conduct several examinations, investigations and treatments simultaneously;

(b) the clinic was established in 2020 by Dr Peter Smith, alongside Dr Rummana Afreen, after Dr Smith noted that people with complex disabilities were regularly presenting to emergency departments with otherwise preventable conditions;

(c) anecdotal evidence indicates that the clinic has directly prevented people from ending up in emergency departments, improved the quality of life of patients and prevented the development of more severe conditions;

(d) Dr Smith has noted that there is a significant gap in the health system that fails to provide reasonable health care to adults with complex disabilities;

(e) the clinic has been backed by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which supports this model of opportunistic sedation to provide basic and essential health services to people with complex needs;

(f) the clinic is operated by volunteer clinicians on an ad-hoc basis and with limited resourcing; and

(g) the clinic was the subject of the ABC 7.30 report Minding the gap on 12 April 2023.

(2) That this House commends the important work of the One Stop Shop clinic and Dr Peter Smith, Dr Rummana Afreen, and all the health workers who volunteer their time with the clinic.

(3) That this House calls on the Minister for Health to:

(a) fund the One Stop Shop clinic on a trial basis with sufficient paid staffing and resourcing for formal evaluation, in consultation with Dr Smith; and

(b) consider long-term sustainable funding for this service and additional similar services across the State.

The motion passed unanimously!

Read the full transcript in Hansard here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

Will you sign?

First Name

Last Name

Mobile phone

Address (Street, Suburb, State, Postcode)

Country

I want to volunteer

Join with Facebook

Join with Twitter

Greens secure funding for One Stop Shop disability clinic

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

Will you sign?

Join the Campaign

Join 50,216 other supporters in taking action