Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, if you have just joined us this morning, we
know the Australian newspaper is reporting that a major liquefied
natural gas processing facility Well here in Darwin, has released
a far greater amount of cancer causing pollutant for the
past seven years than initially reported. That is according to
this report by Leam Mendez in The Australian, and Well
(00:20):
has neglected to notify the public of the nature of
the emissions and details its own apparent failures in accurately
reporting dangerous emissions. So as we know, the ikthiz LNG
processing facility, it's about ten ks from our CBD. It's
understood to have substantially underreported its emissions of what is
(00:40):
believed to be a lakemia causing chemical into the atmosphere
since at least two thousand and eighteen. That is according
to this report in The Australian. Now joining me live
on the line is doctor John Zorbist, who is the
head of the AMA, the Australian Medical Association here in
Northern Territory. Good morning, DoD.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Disorbis, Morning, Katie, how are you here really?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Now, obviously we got you on the show to
talk about a raft of issues this morning, not related
to these doctor's orbis. But upon hearing this report, and
I'm sure you've probably seen a bit about it this morning,
I mean, what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, seeing it all this morning, it's pretty alarming. You know.
Benzene is bad stuff. It's bad stuff. We've got strict
protocols in laboratories, in scientific laboratories for exposure to it.
It's stuff that we really have to keep you away
from to keep you safe. So a major plant within
(01:39):
cooy of Dalen and Palmestan leaking unacceptable amounts of benzine
into the atmosphere is not what we want to be
reading on the paper first thing today. Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, look, no doubt there's going to be a lot
more questions to be asked and to be answered on this.
We know the Northern Territory government have indeed launched a
full investigation or they have certain called for an urgent investigation.
Do you think that goes far enough?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We want to see action wramp up here. I mean,
a couple of weeks ago we were talking about a
major methane leak. Now we're talking about a bending leak.
And at what point do we start a sake accountability
for this. We're team to see the government urgently investigate
this and let's get the facts, you know, let's find
out what's happening. But you know, as a speaking to
you as a territory and let's I take my ana
(02:27):
hat off for a second. I've got a kid who
was born here. Every breath he's taken as being this air,
and I just don't think it should be a political
statement to want to breathe clean air.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, look, we will certainly continue to talk about this issue.
I know that we've put in a request to have
the Minister on the show tomorrow morning. I think all
of us want some answers here. And I will note
that certainly impacts have come out and they have said
that they continue to be proactive and transparent in sharing
information with the nt EPA, So no doubt we'll hear
(02:57):
more about that. But look, Doctor's Orber series, so much
really to discuss with you this morning. I mean, yesterday
we had a few listeners get in contact with us
about delays getting ambulances to the hospital, wait times at
ed and ramping as well at the hospital. We know
that the Northern Territories Health System is always under stress.
(03:17):
You and I have spoken on plenty of occasions, as
we had your predecessor, about federal funding and what is required,
But how are things going at the moment.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're not improving. We have long said and still saying
today that the root cause of all of this is
exit block. These are patients in the hospital who shouldn't
necessarily be in the hospital, patients taking up acute beds
because there is nowhere for them to go, and that's
mostly a lack of age care beds. We have half
a number of age care beds per capita compared to
(03:49):
any other state or territory in Australia, and that puts
us in a decision where the limited number of beds
we do have can't be used for the purposes that
we need them for. So this isn't about the paramedics.
They're doing a fantastic job. This isn't about the staff
and our emergency departments, our doctors, our nurses. This is
about the fact that there is just nowhere for these
patients to go, and it has become you know, we've
(04:10):
normalized disaster and that routinely there are patients waiting twelve
twenty four hours days in some instances to get out
of the emergency department and into their ward bed.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Doctor's orbis. I mean, even yesterday we had people contacting
us saying that, you know, they weren't able to actually
get an ambulance to the hospital. As you've seen, it
is not a criticism of the health stuff in any way,
because what it's coming down to is the not being
a bed available. I mean, has the sort of has
there had to be measures put in place in an
(04:41):
effort to try and and you know, ease some of
that bed block. Over the last couple of.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Weeks, yeah, members have come to us with concerns about
the fact that we're not doing enough and we're not
doing it quickly enough. We've long said that there's systemic
underfunding in the health system, and we can point to
the exact areas as well. We're not just saying we
need more money. Everybody needs more money, but we can
see the exact points where where you compare us to
other states and territories, we're getting a raw deal until
(05:10):
that's fixed. There's a lot of rearranging deck chairs on
the Titanic to keep people safe, and double bunking is
one of those examples where we turn one bed into two.
It's supposed to be a stopgap measure, but it's essentially
become normal practice up here as things have progressively gotten
worse and worse from a resourcing point of view.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I mean you said there that there's some specific areas
where we need to sort of fix out what is
urgent right now. What do you think needs to be
done fairly urgently?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I think the first thing we need to do is
bring us up to the average of the funding level
for our hospitals and healthcare systems compared to other states
and territories. So there's an agreement, the National Hospital Reform
Agreement in RHA. The ministers have been meeting for some
time now. We're getting close to about two years across
all of Australia going back and forth about what a
(05:58):
fair amount of funding is. The NT gets about seven
to eight cent less than the average. Now that's hundreds
of millions of dollars. So for us to not even
be at the starting line, you know, of course we're
losing a fight with our arms tied behind that that
that is a priority we want to see the Health Minister's, federal, state,
(06:18):
territory governments come together and agree that this is not
a fair deal for the territory. Then there's other areas
like aged care, pre hospital retrieval, are remote health tech
clinics where you can see that there's tens of millions
that we're missing out on because the NT government has
become the funder of last resort, so federal responsibilities that
the NT is having to bail out the commonwealth on look,
(06:40):
you know, doctors are patients too, and I think every
citizen in the NT it doesn't matter whether this is
a state or a federal or a territory responsibility. At
the end of the day, people just want to fix
And I don't think that's too much to ask when
it's so obvious that we're not getting a fair deal.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I mean, again, we've spoken about these issues on so
many occasions. There needs to be a really serious focus.
I think it is something that we are continually continuously
getting messages about. One of the big things though, over
the last sort of couple of weeks that we've had
quite a few people contact us about is the fact
that the ambulances are having to ramp there at the
hospital because there isn't a bed in emergency, which I
(07:19):
think we're you know, we're sort of all aware of
the stress there under well that ed is under. I mean,
are we like, are we at the point here Doctor's
orbis where we're in a code yellow situation or are
we not? Or are we just sort of continuously operating
at absolute full capacity?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah? Yeah, Look, doctor's come to us saying that we
should be in a code yellow at various points during
the week or the month. I think we can lose
a lot of time arguing around the labels, but without
a doubt we are over capacity. There is not a
single day but our health service is not trying to
serve more people than it's got the resourcing to serve. So,
whether we call it a coat yellow or not, do
(08:01):
we have the capacity to level what we need to No,
that's a resound now answer, and it's been like that
for some time now.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Hey, what about when it comes to sort of patient travel,
you know, patients having to be transported to the hospital
via various different means. I mean, is that sort of
still able to happen and are they still able to
be transported to our Royal Darwin Hospital emergency ward at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, Again, it's one of those areas where the busier
the system gets the heart it is. So you know,
we've had we've had doctors telling us about patients who've
been waiting in say Catherine or go or clinic because
the retrieval services are fled out, or because the charters
are full, So you know, it's that capacity. What I
will say is we're very vulnerable to problems in patient
(08:47):
travel because we're a very large part of the country
and so areas where you wouldn't notice disruption patient travel,
like in the city Melbourne or Sydney, we're very vulnerable
to these sorts of things. And coming into the wet season,
you know the web there is a factor as well
where the planes and helicopters just can't get to where
they need to. So even the smallest disruption in that
space can lead to big knock on effects down the
(09:09):
tract for patients doctor's albust.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
One of the other big issues, as we know of
quite a long period of time, has been the troubled
Acacia IT system. It was recently back in the headlines
as we know, an investigation launched amid allegations that a
contractor working on the Northern Territory government's troubled a Kaisha
it project was bullied and harassed before his sudden death
(09:33):
last month. Where are things that from your perspective, from
a clinical perspective, in terms of the rollout of that
Acacia it system.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So the plan at the moment is to bring Akesha
back to the Emergency Department in Royal Darwen in mid November.
We still got concerns around the Acacia program itself, but
also the program as a whole, going right back to
the start. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars
and we're going to end up with a piece of
software that is far smaller than it was designed to be.
(10:05):
So it was supposed to replace all the software that
we use in the clinics and outreach services, so that
you'd have sort of one record to rule them all
and I'd be able to see what had happened in
the clinic. Now we're not going to have that. That
part has been abandoned, or at least it hasn't been funded.
And so you know, come November December, that's it. What
we have is what we've got. This is a product
(10:26):
that had to be switched off because it was unsafe.
Now I know that, you know, the Department and the
government are working on making it safe and they're still
doing simulation and training and things like that. But ultimately,
this many millions of dollars for something that the doctors
can't get excited about. We've got to be going back
to the start and asking questions about how we ended
(10:46):
up here in the first place.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, are you worried when that rolls out
in mid November? Are you worried about patient safety?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I'm always worried about patience.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think we doctors will do what they have all
done in unsafe situations, and that is revert to backup
mechanisms and different ways of doing things. So you know,
our outages or software glitches mean that from time to
time in all Australian hospitals, suddenly the electronic medical record
can't be accessed and we just start using paper. And
that's fine. That takes care of you. You're really urgent stuff,
(11:18):
your category ones, your category twos. But if the slow
stuff over time causes the real problem. If we have
a system that's hard to use, this clunky information can't
be found quickly, that's when you get that really risk
creeping in where it's not clear that the software is
the reason, and so people are missing appointments or they're
not getting the care they need in time. And it's
the little stuff that doesn't raid the giant red flags.
(11:40):
That's what we're really worried about. But that's a slow burn,
and that's you know something when a case comes, it's
not like we're going to stop where we're still heavily
focused on this. We think a good electronic or medical
record is a really important part of modern healthcare. And
for us, it's not good enough for us to say, well,
this has cost so much, we have to stop. No,
we can't stop. We've got to keep working and end
up with a system that does work for its doctors
(12:01):
and it's patients.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I mean, given the recent reporting as well, though, are
you concerned about the mental health impacts of the people
being asked to implement this, you know, those that have
been working on it recently, but even for your own
you know, like even for the staff in emergency and
everywhere else as it rolls out.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, last rollout in IRDH. I was on the radio
at this time talking about experienced emergency physicians who have
been doing this job for twenty thirty years plus, and
they've worked in war zones. We're not talking about people
who are just fresh out of medical school, brought to
tears and essentially just you know, in another state of
(12:40):
shock in terms of their ability to provide care for
their patients. It takes a lot to break people like that.
We don't want to repeat that, and that's a concern
for hours, and we'll be making sure that that's front
and center.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And I mean, what about the impact of those, you know,
those being asked to implement it as well.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, exactly, this isn't just about doctors. This is about
everybody involved in the project. Yeah, everybody who comes to work,
I think comes to work to do a good job.
It's very rare to find someone who's actively trying to
do a bad job, and they should be supported in that.
And we want to make sure that if there are problems,
that's managed properly. You know, we don't want things to
be such a mess that people are just yelling each
(13:19):
other on the shop floor. We need to make sure
we do things properly and slowly. You can't just rush
things because there are financial deadlines or time deadlines. Safety
comes first when it comes to patient cares, especially somewhere
like the emergency department.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, so, what is your message, given the
fact that it's meant to come out like it's meant
to be operational mid NOVEMBA, what is your message for
those you know, trying to get it rolled out into
the ED. I would assume that you want to make
sure that any of those concerns are ironed out before
you're having to use it.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Our message is the same that it's always been, and
that's listening to your frontline staff. And when I say
frontline staff, I don't mean just your doctors. I mean
your nurses, your ward clerks, will lease eu ACACIA staff,
the people wearing orange shirts who have been employed to
help us implement it on the ground. You know, if
you're in the front line, if you're that, you know
that first layer in contact with patients, You're the one
(14:13):
seeing the problems. You're the one who knows how to
prioritize those problems. And our message to health and to
DCDD is simple, listen to your front line staff. Take
their concerns seriously. They can't just die in a committee.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well. Doctor John zorbis, the head of the AMA here
in the Northern Territory. Always appreciate your time. I know
you're a busy man. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Thanks, Bettie, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Thanks so much.
Well, if you have just joined us this morning, we
know the Australian newspaper is reporting that a major liquefied
natural gas processing facility Well here in Darwin, has released
a far greater amount of cancer causing pollutant for the
past seven years than initially reported. That is according to
this report by Leam Mendez in The Australian, and Well
(00:20):
has neglected to notify the public of the nature of
the emissions and details its own apparent failures in accurately
reporting dangerous emissions. So as we know, the ikthiz LNG
processing facility, it's about ten ks from our CBD. It's
understood to have substantially underreported its emissions of what is
(00:40):
believed to be a lakemia causing chemical into the atmosphere
since at least two thousand and eighteen. That is according
to this report in The Australian. Now joining me live
on the line is doctor John Zorbist, who is the
head of the AMA, the Australian Medical Association here in
Northern Territory. Good morning, DoD.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Disorbis, Morning, Katie, how are you here really?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Now, obviously we got you on the show to
talk about a raft of issues this morning, not related
to these doctor's orbis. But upon hearing this report, and
I'm sure you've probably seen a bit about it this morning,
I mean, what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, seeing it all this morning, it's pretty alarming. You know.
Benzene is bad stuff. It's bad stuff. We've got strict
protocols in laboratories, in scientific laboratories for exposure to it.
It's stuff that we really have to keep you away
from to keep you safe. So a major plant within
(01:39):
cooy of Dalen and Palmestan leaking unacceptable amounts of benzine
into the atmosphere is not what we want to be
reading on the paper first thing today. Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, look, no doubt there's going to be a lot
more questions to be asked and to be answered on this.
We know the Northern Territory government have indeed launched a
full investigation or they have certain called for an urgent investigation.
Do you think that goes far enough?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We want to see action wramp up here. I mean,
a couple of weeks ago we were talking about a
major methane leak. Now we're talking about a bending leak.
And at what point do we start a sake accountability
for this. We're team to see the government urgently investigate
this and let's get the facts, you know, let's find
out what's happening. But you know, as a speaking to
you as a territory and let's I take my ana
(02:27):
hat off for a second. I've got a kid who
was born here. Every breath he's taken as being this air,
and I just don't think it should be a political
statement to want to breathe clean air.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, look, we will certainly continue to talk about this issue.
I know that we've put in a request to have
the Minister on the show tomorrow morning. I think all
of us want some answers here. And I will note
that certainly impacts have come out and they have said
that they continue to be proactive and transparent in sharing
information with the nt EPA, So no doubt we'll hear
(02:57):
more about that. But look, Doctor's Orber series, so much
really to discuss with you this morning. I mean, yesterday
we had a few listeners get in contact with us
about delays getting ambulances to the hospital, wait times at
ed and ramping as well at the hospital. We know
that the Northern Territories Health System is always under stress.
(03:17):
You and I have spoken on plenty of occasions, as
we had your predecessor, about federal funding and what is required,
But how are things going at the moment.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're not improving. We have long said and still saying
today that the root cause of all of this is
exit block. These are patients in the hospital who shouldn't
necessarily be in the hospital, patients taking up acute beds
because there is nowhere for them to go, and that's
mostly a lack of age care beds. We have half
a number of age care beds per capita compared to
(03:49):
any other state or territory in Australia, and that puts
us in a decision where the limited number of beds
we do have can't be used for the purposes that
we need them for. So this isn't about the paramedics.
They're doing a fantastic job. This isn't about the staff
and our emergency departments, our doctors, our nurses. This is
about the fact that there is just nowhere for these
patients to go, and it has become you know, we've
(04:10):
normalized disaster and that routinely there are patients waiting twelve
twenty four hours days in some instances to get out
of the emergency department and into their ward bed.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Doctor's orbis. I mean, even yesterday we had people contacting
us saying that, you know, they weren't able to actually
get an ambulance to the hospital. As you've seen, it
is not a criticism of the health stuff in any way,
because what it's coming down to is the not being
a bed available. I mean, has the sort of has
there had to be measures put in place in an
(04:41):
effort to try and and you know, ease some of
that bed block. Over the last couple of.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Weeks, yeah, members have come to us with concerns about
the fact that we're not doing enough and we're not
doing it quickly enough. We've long said that there's systemic
underfunding in the health system, and we can point to
the exact areas as well. We're not just saying we
need more money. Everybody needs more money, but we can
see the exact points where where you compare us to
other states and territories, we're getting a raw deal until
(05:10):
that's fixed. There's a lot of rearranging deck chairs on
the Titanic to keep people safe, and double bunking is
one of those examples where we turn one bed into two.
It's supposed to be a stopgap measure, but it's essentially
become normal practice up here as things have progressively gotten
worse and worse from a resourcing point of view.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I mean you said there that there's some specific areas
where we need to sort of fix out what is
urgent right now. What do you think needs to be
done fairly urgently?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I think the first thing we need to do is
bring us up to the average of the funding level
for our hospitals and healthcare systems compared to other states
and territories. So there's an agreement, the National Hospital Reform
Agreement in RHA. The ministers have been meeting for some
time now. We're getting close to about two years across
all of Australia going back and forth about what a
(05:58):
fair amount of funding is. The NT gets about seven
to eight cent less than the average. Now that's hundreds
of millions of dollars. So for us to not even
be at the starting line, you know, of course we're
losing a fight with our arms tied behind that that
that is a priority we want to see the Health Minister's, federal, state,
(06:18):
territory governments come together and agree that this is not
a fair deal for the territory. Then there's other areas
like aged care, pre hospital retrieval, are remote health tech
clinics where you can see that there's tens of millions
that we're missing out on because the NT government has
become the funder of last resort, so federal responsibilities that
the NT is having to bail out the commonwealth on look,
(06:40):
you know, doctors are patients too, and I think every
citizen in the NT it doesn't matter whether this is
a state or a federal or a territory responsibility. At
the end of the day, people just want to fix
And I don't think that's too much to ask when
it's so obvious that we're not getting a fair deal.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I mean, again, we've spoken about these issues on so
many occasions. There needs to be a really serious focus.
I think it is something that we are continually continuously
getting messages about. One of the big things though, over
the last sort of couple of weeks that we've had
quite a few people contact us about is the fact
that the ambulances are having to ramp there at the
hospital because there isn't a bed in emergency, which I
(07:19):
think we're you know, we're sort of all aware of
the stress there under well that ed is under. I mean,
are we like, are we at the point here Doctor's
orbis where we're in a code yellow situation or are
we not? Or are we just sort of continuously operating
at absolute full capacity?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah? Yeah, Look, doctor's come to us saying that we
should be in a code yellow at various points during
the week or the month. I think we can lose
a lot of time arguing around the labels, but without
a doubt we are over capacity. There is not a
single day but our health service is not trying to
serve more people than it's got the resourcing to serve. So,
whether we call it a coat yellow or not, do
(08:01):
we have the capacity to level what we need to No,
that's a resound now answer, and it's been like that
for some time now.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Hey, what about when it comes to sort of patient travel,
you know, patients having to be transported to the hospital
via various different means. I mean, is that sort of
still able to happen and are they still able to
be transported to our Royal Darwin Hospital emergency ward at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, Again, it's one of those areas where the busier
the system gets the heart it is. So you know,
we've had we've had doctors telling us about patients who've
been waiting in say Catherine or go or clinic because
the retrieval services are fled out, or because the charters
are full, So you know, it's that capacity. What I
will say is we're very vulnerable to problems in patient
(08:47):
travel because we're a very large part of the country
and so areas where you wouldn't notice disruption patient travel,
like in the city Melbourne or Sydney, we're very vulnerable
to these sorts of things. And coming into the wet season,
you know the web there is a factor as well
where the planes and helicopters just can't get to where
they need to. So even the smallest disruption in that
space can lead to big knock on effects down the
(09:09):
tract for patients doctor's albust.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
One of the other big issues, as we know of
quite a long period of time, has been the troubled
Acacia IT system. It was recently back in the headlines
as we know, an investigation launched amid allegations that a
contractor working on the Northern Territory government's troubled a Kaisha
it project was bullied and harassed before his sudden death
(09:33):
last month. Where are things that from your perspective, from
a clinical perspective, in terms of the rollout of that
Acacia it system.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So the plan at the moment is to bring Akesha
back to the Emergency Department in Royal Darwen in mid November.
We still got concerns around the Acacia program itself, but
also the program as a whole, going right back to
the start. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars
and we're going to end up with a piece of
software that is far smaller than it was designed to be.
(10:05):
So it was supposed to replace all the software that
we use in the clinics and outreach services, so that
you'd have sort of one record to rule them all
and I'd be able to see what had happened in
the clinic. Now we're not going to have that. That
part has been abandoned, or at least it hasn't been funded.
And so you know, come November December, that's it. What
we have is what we've got. This is a product
(10:26):
that had to be switched off because it was unsafe.
Now I know that, you know, the Department and the
government are working on making it safe and they're still
doing simulation and training and things like that. But ultimately,
this many millions of dollars for something that the doctors
can't get excited about. We've got to be going back
to the start and asking questions about how we ended
(10:46):
up here in the first place.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, are you worried when that rolls out
in mid November? Are you worried about patient safety?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I'm always worried about patience.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think we doctors will do what they have all
done in unsafe situations, and that is revert to backup
mechanisms and different ways of doing things. So you know,
our outages or software glitches mean that from time to
time in all Australian hospitals, suddenly the electronic medical record
can't be accessed and we just start using paper. And
that's fine. That takes care of you. You're really urgent stuff,
(11:18):
your category ones, your category twos. But if the slow
stuff over time causes the real problem. If we have
a system that's hard to use, this clunky information can't
be found quickly, that's when you get that really risk
creeping in where it's not clear that the software is
the reason, and so people are missing appointments or they're
not getting the care they need in time. And it's
the little stuff that doesn't raid the giant red flags.
(11:40):
That's what we're really worried about. But that's a slow burn,
and that's you know something when a case comes, it's
not like we're going to stop where we're still heavily
focused on this. We think a good electronic or medical
record is a really important part of modern healthcare. And
for us, it's not good enough for us to say, well,
this has cost so much, we have to stop. No,
we can't stop. We've got to keep working and end
up with a system that does work for its doctors
(12:01):
and it's patients.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I mean, given the recent reporting as well, though, are
you concerned about the mental health impacts of the people
being asked to implement this, you know, those that have
been working on it recently, but even for your own
you know, like even for the staff in emergency and
everywhere else as it rolls out.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, last rollout in IRDH. I was on the radio
at this time talking about experienced emergency physicians who have
been doing this job for twenty thirty years plus, and
they've worked in war zones. We're not talking about people
who are just fresh out of medical school, brought to
tears and essentially just you know, in another state of
(12:40):
shock in terms of their ability to provide care for
their patients. It takes a lot to break people like that.
We don't want to repeat that, and that's a concern
for hours, and we'll be making sure that that's front
and center.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And I mean, what about the impact of those, you know,
those being asked to implement it as well.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, exactly, this isn't just about doctors. This is about
everybody involved in the project. Yeah, everybody who comes to work,
I think comes to work to do a good job.
It's very rare to find someone who's actively trying to
do a bad job, and they should be supported in that.
And we want to make sure that if there are problems,
that's managed properly. You know, we don't want things to
be such a mess that people are just yelling each
(13:19):
other on the shop floor. We need to make sure
we do things properly and slowly. You can't just rush
things because there are financial deadlines or time deadlines. Safety
comes first when it comes to patient cares, especially somewhere
like the emergency department.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, so, what is your message, given the
fact that it's meant to come out like it's meant
to be operational mid NOVEMBA, what is your message for
those you know, trying to get it rolled out into
the ED. I would assume that you want to make
sure that any of those concerns are ironed out before
you're having to use it.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Our message is the same that it's always been, and
that's listening to your frontline staff. And when I say
frontline staff, I don't mean just your doctors. I mean
your nurses, your ward clerks, will lease eu ACACIA staff,
the people wearing orange shirts who have been employed to
help us implement it on the ground. You know, if
you're in the front line, if you're that, you know
that first layer in contact with patients, You're the one
(14:13):
seeing the problems. You're the one who knows how to
prioritize those problems. And our message to health and to
DCDD is simple, listen to your front line staff. Take
their concerns seriously. They can't just die in a committee.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well. Doctor John zorbis, the head of the AMA here
in the Northern Territory. Always appreciate your time. I know
you're a busy man. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Thanks, Bettie, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Thanks so much.
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