Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / AMA NT President Robert Parker says he warned the government there would be a spike in alcohol-related ED presentations if the grog ban was lifted

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AMA NT President Robert Parker says he warned the government there would be a spike in alcohol-related ED presentations if the grog ban was lifted · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, in that other news from throughout this morning, we
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  Speaker 1: know that presentations at the Alice Springs Hospital increased from
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  Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty cases in the second quarter of
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two to nearly thirteen hundred by the fourth quarter,
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  Speaker 1: during which time stronger.
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  Speaker 2: Futures legislation ended.
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  Speaker 1: On top of that, we know over the weekend and
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  Speaker 1: doctor revealed the horrifying, confronting, demoralized way that staff are
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  Speaker 1: feeling at the Alice Springs Hospital as they tried to
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  Speaker 1: deal with extreme alcohol fueled violence and what's been described
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  Speaker 1: as parental neglect in central Australia. One doctor had spoken
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  Speaker 1: to Sky News, as I've mentioned throughout this week, on
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  Speaker 1: the condition of being anonymous and telling Matt Cunningham that
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  Speaker 1: the hospital had treated some horrendous situations. We also know
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  Speaker 1: that nurse Rachel Hale, former nurse, has spoken nationally about
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  Speaker 1: some further horrendous situations as we've just touched on with
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  Speaker 1: just Enter Price. But joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now is the head of the AMA, the Australian Medical
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  Speaker 1: Association here are in the Northern Territory, Doctor Robert Parker.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Doctor Parker, Morning Katie, Doctor Parker, what.
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  Speaker 1: Are you hearing on the ground in Alice Springs at
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  Speaker 1: the moment out of the hospital.
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  Speaker 3: Well, pretty much what's like. Cunningham reported that there's a
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  Speaker 3: really bad situation going on in the ED because the
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  Speaker 3: amount of alcohol and trauma. So it's obviously very distressing
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  Speaker 3: to the people attending the ED. It's also very distressing
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  Speaker 3: to staff, and has pointed out, you know, the we're
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  Speaker 3: hearing it's very difficult now to recruit junior nursing and
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  Speaker 3: junior medical staff to the hospital because people are being
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  Speaker 3: the junior stuff are being made more and more aware
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  Speaker 3: on their social media links about how difficult the working
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  Speaker 3: conditions are. So yeah, it's proved a significant problem in
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  Speaker 3: recruiting young doctors and nurses to come to the center
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  Speaker 3: because of what they know potential experience.
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  Speaker 1: And I guess, you know, it's one thing to be
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  Speaker 1: treating patients and you know, and to be experiencing some
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  Speaker 1: of the horrifying conditions that you will be dealing with
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  Speaker 1: with patients, but then it is another as well to
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  Speaker 1: on top of that, be having to grapple with assaults
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  Speaker 1: and with your own staff being in dangerous situations.
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  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. I mean, the government, to its credit
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  Speaker 3: and following all this revelations that set up a transport
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  Speaker 3: service for staff to make sure that they're or safely
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  Speaker 3: transit from their accommodation in Our Springs to hospital and
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  Speaker 3: back home again. So that's been one good thing that's
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  Speaker 3: occurred from this. And hopefully there'll be more security staff
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  Speaker 3: on the site to protect staff and patients from aggressive,
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  Speaker 3: abusive individuals.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there really needs to be, I mean, we spoke
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  Speaker 1: to Cath Hatcher yesterday from the nursing I mean with Reunion.
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  Speaker 1: She had said that she was aware of of a
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  Speaker 1: nurse being set upon by up to sort of fifteen
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  Speaker 1: youths at one point. She also said it was her
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  Speaker 1: understanding that a doctor had been set assaulted. Dr Parker,
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  Speaker 1: what is your understanding of that situation?
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  Speaker 3: Well, and again it's just it's chaos, you know. The
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we did tell the chiefments of six months
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  Speaker 3: ago this was going to occur, and I actually did
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  Speaker 3: give her information about population based issues of alcohol from
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  Speaker 3: North Queensland that you know, showed that this was the future.
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  Speaker 3: But we were told human rights supervenes the damaging communities
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  Speaker 3: and obviously, as I pointed out at the time, the
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  Speaker 3: human rights of belligerent drunks overwhelmed the desperate human rights
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  Speaker 3: of the women and children that they have views. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's unfortunately the human rights moment and nothing
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  Speaker 3: critical of this. They all live in so there's like
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  Speaker 3: Merrick nol Carlton and whatever. I've got no concept of
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  Speaker 3: the population based problems of alcohol indigenous communities, and that's
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  Speaker 3: why I gave the Chief Minister the two of North
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  Speaker 3: Queensland that showed the desperate situation resulting from the introduction
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  Speaker 3: of license clubs here in the eighties and the massive
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  Speaker 3: impact has had on physical and mental health outcomes in
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  Speaker 3: those communities. I mean, when we've told her this was
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  Speaker 3: going to happen, we told her this was the future
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  Speaker 3: what was happening now, so you know, and wasn't just Ama,
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  Speaker 3: it was also Aboriginal health organizations were very clear about
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  Speaker 3: their major concerns about this. So she was very very
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  Speaker 3: well aware of this what's happening now six months ago.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I interviewed her on Monday and I asked her
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  Speaker 1: them who she's consulting with, you know when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to moving forward with alcohol restrictions and whether they're going
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  Speaker 1: to have a ballot in Central Australia for the town
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  Speaker 1: camps to determine whether they should be.
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  Speaker 2: Able to have alcohol or not.
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  Speaker 1: I'd ask her who she'd consulted with, and she'd said
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  Speaker 1: that they'd been consulting with the Tongueanjira Town Council, which
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  Speaker 1: is fair enough, but I can't understand why that consultation
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  Speaker 1: is not also happening with the likes of the AMA,
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  Speaker 1: with the likes of Congress, with the likes of AMSANT,
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  Speaker 1: you know, all of the other groups as well who
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  Speaker 1: are on the front line trying to assist and trying
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  Speaker 1: to do the right thing by the community as things decline.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think those consultations occurred six months ago, as
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  Speaker 3: I mentioned, and now she's trying to mop up the
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  Speaker 3: mess that's occurred because our good advice was ignored.
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  Speaker 2: And people seem frustrated. I mean, Rob, you sound frustrated.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody seems frustrated because it seems like you all knew
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  Speaker 1: what was coming and weren't being listened to.
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  Speaker 3: That's correct. We told of the future, and that the
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  Speaker 3: future's happened as we predicted.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Parker just having a look at these stats, so
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  Speaker 1: we understand that there's been a fifty percent increase in
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  Speaker 1: alcohol related presentation to ed in Alice Springs. That's according
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  Speaker 1: to a report by Matt Garrick on the ABC. What's
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  Speaker 1: your response to that, You're probably not overly surprised.
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  Speaker 3: No, no, well, that is the future we predicted. We
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  Speaker 3: told her there'd be massive increases in alcohol related from
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  Speaker 3: But it's really the tip of the iceberg because we're
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  Speaker 3: looking in all the damaged women and children, you know,
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  Speaker 3: which is probably a much greater amount, you know, So
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  Speaker 3: it's almost like the tip of the iceberg, with the
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  Speaker 3: bottom of the iceberg being lots of massive amounts of
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  Speaker 3: traumatized women and children and damage both physically and mentally,
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  Speaker 3: which is obviously going to be a future major impact
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  Speaker 3: on the health system when they turn up with their
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  Speaker 3: own substance abuse, straight mental health issues and used to
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  Speaker 3: come you know, so ingradiating as the tip of the iceberg.
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  Speaker 2: Doctor Parker.
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  Speaker 1: I Also it was confirmed on Monday by the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister that hand sanitizers had been will have been labeled
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  Speaker 1: an issue. They've had to be hidden away in Alice Springs,
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  Speaker 1: taken off the public floor.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's right. When someone is desperate to get alcohol.
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  Speaker 3: They're using anything available, you know, such as food, coloring
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  Speaker 3: and other issues. You know, when people people who are
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  Speaker 3: desperate to get an alcoholic skits will drink anything that's
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  Speaker 3: got in it, you know, which is why meta lated
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  Speaker 3: spirits has to has to be kept behind the counters
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  Speaker 3: in most supermarkets so that people don't can't get metho.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's a pretty desperate situation, doctor Parker.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think needs to happen?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we need to get some I think
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  Speaker 3: the opt in, where communities have to actually make a
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  Speaker 3: decision to have alcohol in their community and justify it
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  Speaker 3: is really what needs to happen, rather than the opt out.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, because the problem is that bullying and
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  Speaker 3: intimidation is very much part of any intimidation in part
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  Speaker 3: of any community consultation. But the people who've got the
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  Speaker 3: best interest in alcohol usually try and intimidate and and
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  Speaker 3: bully the other members to make sure that they get
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  Speaker 3: a vote in their favor. So we really need the
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  Speaker 3: I suppose what the government is set up in the
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  Speaker 3: Liquor Commission with with benchmarks for working out whether the
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  Speaker 3: community will have alcohol and not in terms of community harm,
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  Speaker 3: community benefit and that really needs to apply to all
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  Speaker 3: the camps. So it really needs to be an application
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  Speaker 3: for alcohol to those areas based on the benchmarks the
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  Speaker 3: government's already established, doctor Parker.
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  Speaker 1: Just in closing from your perspective at this point, is
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  Speaker 1: the Ala Springs Hospital a safe place to work right now?
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  Speaker 3: Well again, with the additional secure already started, I understand
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  Speaker 3: of being employed and the trendsit that the government's organized.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's much safer than it was a week ago.
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  Speaker 2: Well that is good.
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, I am really pleased to hear that there
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  Speaker 1: has at least been that immediate action, and I do
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  Speaker 1: you know, I really hope that things improve the health
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  Speaker 1: of Territorians, particularly you know, as you've touched on women
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  Speaker 1: and children in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, and I mean I've always been concerned about
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  Speaker 3: the invisible and or less visible victims of this community
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  Speaker 3: alcohol issue that I was informing the Chief Minister about
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  Speaker 3: six months ago.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Robert Parker, I always appreciate your time. Thanks very
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  Speaker 1: much for joining us for the for the first time
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  Speaker 1: for twenty twenty three. No doubt we'll talk to you
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  Speaker 1: again soon, Okay.
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  Speaker 3: All the best for your Kadia thank you, thank you,
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  Speaker 3: you're OK.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks doctor Parker.