Detention healthcare needs oversight - AMA

Transcript

TONY BARTONE: A large proportion of all medical services in Australia are delivered by independent providers, however there are regulatory authorities which oversee the activities and the outcomes be it in a hospital system or be it in a private medical practice, that opportunity for that oversight or that review by the regulatory authority is not available in an offshore detention facility and that's why we're calling for an independent oversight to ensure that cases like the ones that we've become involved with aren't allowed to continue on without the appropriate systems. It's not the job of the AMA to advocate on behalf of detainees who are patients in the various offshore facilities, there should be an appropriate pathway which by there can be a review of the care that's being given and the outcomes  that are being achieved.

BEN ROBINSON: In the examples that you provide in the submission, these detainees on Nauru and Manus Island are in need of health care that's beyond the capabilities of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. There seems to be a grave need here for healthcare that is not being met.

TB: The examples in the submission highlight failings or lack of appropriate scaling up or referral on of medical care that was required in those instances, care that was not available in the offshore facilities or the treatment centres nominated, there's required to be a referral on to more appropriate treatment facilities to ensure the appropriate medical outcomes.

BR: I wonder whether here you are indirectly suggesting that the company which is looking after these people and their health, I wonder if you're suggesting that they're not doing a very good job.

TB: They are operating under extremely difficult circumstances often without enough detail or enough information to ensure the appropriate management and essentially what I suppose I am saying is that they're working towards a set of agreed requirement and they're probably hamstrung to deviate from that, we don't know whether a request has been made and not attended to or whether it is a failing at a much earlier level. This is why we're saying that there should be that independent oversight, a statutory body of clinical experts which would have the ability to investigate and report back and questions like you've just asked would be able to be clearly answered.