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Speaker 1: There's been a lot of discussion in recent months about health,

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Speaker 1: the hospital and maternity services.

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Speaker 2: Now, we had put in a request to speak to

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Speaker 2: the Federal.

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Speaker 1: Health Minister to find out where things are at with

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Speaker 1: the additional funding for maternity services and also speak about

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Speaker 1: the potential for long term funding for a new tertiory hospital. Now,

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Speaker 1: yesterday we received a statement from the Federal Health Minister

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Speaker 1: and that basically said that National Cabinet reached an agreement

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Speaker 1: on the thirtieth of January to deliver record funding to

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Speaker 1: state and territory hospitals. It includes twenty four point four

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Speaker 1: billion dollars in additional projected NHRA funding over five years

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Speaker 1: to twenty thirty thirty one, and the Northern Territory is

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Speaker 1: projected to be seven hundred and forty one million dollars

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Speaker 1: better off well compared to continuing current funding arrangements over

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Speaker 1: five years to twenty thirty to thirty one. So look,

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Speaker 1: you know, no doubt things are slightly better when it

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Speaker 1: comes to our funding. But I guess some would argue,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're trying to a band aid over a

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Speaker 1: bullet hole when you look at how old the hospital

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Speaker 1: is and some of the issues that we are dealing

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Speaker 1: with currently. Now joining me on the line is the

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Speaker 1: CEO of nt Health, Chris Hosking. Good morning to you, Chris, Good.

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Speaker 3: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 2: Great to have you on the show, Chris.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell us when did the Department of Health

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Speaker 1: provide the Federal government all the info that they required

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the additional funding for maternity services?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Cotie. And this one's obviously had a

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Speaker 3: fair bit of attention in the mainstream media, but we

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Speaker 3: were engaged with the Commonwealth Department over a period of time.

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Speaker 3: Our Health Minister Steve Edgington first wrote to Minister Butler

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Speaker 3: back in May last year and not long after the

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Speaker 3: decision to close and private hospital was announced by health Scope,

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Speaker 3: and we put a very strong proposal to the Commonwealth

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Speaker 3: for thirty five million dollars that would have enabled us

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Speaker 3: to co locate all of our maternity services in rul

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Speaker 3: Darwen onto one floor of the hospital. And that's a

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Speaker 3: fair better money, but it would have included internal building

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Speaker 3: works and things to get everyone consolidated on one floor

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Speaker 3: that wasn't entertained by the Commonwealth. And they wrote back

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Speaker 3: and said, oh, look we think we'd be prepared to

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Speaker 3: offer you something a bit more in line with what

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Speaker 3: a couple of other states got, which was around that

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Speaker 3: ten million dollar margin. We had provided two options, one

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Speaker 3: which was the high end, and an option around that

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Speaker 3: ten million dollar envelope. And what followed from then was

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Speaker 3: a series of correspondents to and throw culminating in really

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Speaker 3: detailed specifications and things that can be used to go

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Speaker 3: to tender and secure the contractors to get locked in

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Speaker 3: and do that work. And that is all done awesome.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think that that's going to be really pleasing

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people to hear. What is that

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Speaker 1: ten million dollars going to do at our maternity ward?

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Speaker 3: Essentially, at the maternity ward, we will undertake a whole

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Speaker 3: bunch of internal refresh and renovations just to make it

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Speaker 3: a more welcoming and a nicer environment for mums to

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Speaker 3: come and have their babies and receive their follow up

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Speaker 3: care after their babies are delivered. You know, I've been

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Speaker 3: pretty vocal in recent times about the age and the

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Speaker 3: state of our hospitals. The old girl has seen better days,

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Speaker 3: and this will just make it a It won't enable

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Speaker 3: us to do the co location of all of the

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Speaker 3: facilities and the birthing suites and everything will still be

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Speaker 3: across a couple of floors, but it will be a

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Speaker 3: much nicer place for mums to come and have their babies.

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Speaker 1: What is the situation with the air conditioning, because there's

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Speaker 1: been a lot of discussion about this and we've had

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Speaker 1: mums contact us saying that, you know, it's not working

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Speaker 1: to its full capacity. Even yesterday, I had a mum

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Speaker 1: contact us talking us through her story and saying that

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Speaker 1: you know that it was hot up there when.

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Speaker 2: She gave birth last year.

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Speaker 1: Her baby had to be taken to the neonatal intensive

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Speaker 1: care unit. They thought the baby had a temp. It

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Speaker 1: turned out the baby was just warm. What is the

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Speaker 1: go with the air concresse?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, the air conditioning, like the rest of the building,

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Speaker 3: is very old, Kadi. It's the original plant and equipment

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Speaker 3: from when the hospital was built. I can categorically rule

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Speaker 3: out the statement that was made that the maternity ward

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Speaker 3: had been without air conditioning for five hundred days. That's

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Speaker 3: simply not accurate. But like any old building, some days

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Speaker 3: the air conditioning works better than others, and we have

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Speaker 3: days where it's a bit too cool and days where

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Speaker 3: it's a bit too warm. But these variations in temperature

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Speaker 3: are generally measured in one or two degrees. We did

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Speaker 3: have a period late last year where one of the

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Speaker 3: cooling fans failed and we had a period where it

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Speaker 3: was probabably one or two degrees warmer than the recommended temperature,

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Speaker 3: and it took a little while to rectify that. But

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Speaker 3: that was rectified back around Christmas time. But I guess

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Speaker 3: if I had to give you a general statement about

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Speaker 3: the air conditioning, it's like any fifty year old building,

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Speaker 3: it's very hard to keep the air conditioning at that

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Speaker 3: standard setting of twenty two to twenty four degrees selfius.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, even you know in our building here where

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Speaker 1: we work, we have issues with the air con. I

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Speaker 1: guess what then became confusing is the Minister had stood

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Speaker 1: up in question time and sort of scoffed at, you know,

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Speaker 1: the question that there'd been a problem with the air con.

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Speaker 1: I mean, why did he say it was working if

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Speaker 1: it's not working at full capacity.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's probably attributable to me, Katie. I had, as

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Speaker 3: we do, provided advice to our minister that the very

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Speaker 3: strong statement about having no air conditioning for five hundred

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Speaker 3: days was not true. And look, if that was true,

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Speaker 3: we would have had to the ward and reposition patients

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Speaker 3: that would actually trigger a Code yellow. It would be

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Speaker 3: that serious for us. Now, where these variations in temperature

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Speaker 3: have occurred, they have been fairly minor and not requiring

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Speaker 3: any sort of clinical impact or need to move patients

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Speaker 3: around the hospitals.

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Speaker 2: And Chris, why do you reckon?

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Speaker 1: We've got mums and that are saying, you know that

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Speaker 1: their bubbs had to go into neonatal intensive care to

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Speaker 1: go and get checked, or mums saying, you know, like

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Speaker 1: arguing it wouldn't be minor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I'm I'm very sure that when those

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Speaker 3: mums have had those experiences they're faired income Kadie, I'm

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Speaker 3: not questioning that for a moment. But as you would

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Speaker 3: imagine with anything that's had this level of public scrutiny,

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Speaker 3: We've gone back and reviewed all the jobs logged and

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Speaker 3: all the times the technicians are tended to work on.

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Speaker 3: And this is a regular gig at RDH. The poor

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Speaker 3: old air conditioning text are up there quite a bit,

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Speaker 3: and we don't have any recorded temperatures or you know,

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Speaker 3: data to support a variation of more than a degree

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Speaker 3: or two, which can be quite noticeable for some people.

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Speaker 3: I know your comments about new buildings. I'm in a

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Speaker 3: brand spanking new building here with new air coon, and

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Speaker 3: I'm sitting in my office and I'm a bit warm

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Speaker 3: and sweaty, but I think.

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Speaker 1: Birth.

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Speaker 2: We're not in la.

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Speaker 3: I'm never going to give birth, fifty eight year old man.

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Speaker 1: We're the lucky ones, you know, in the sense that

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Speaker 1: if we're a bit warm, it doesn't matter. Look, does

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Speaker 1: it need to be a further look into this air

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Speaker 1: cons situation? You know. I know we've covered we're sort

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Speaker 1: of covering old ground here, but it sounds like it's suboptimal.

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Speaker 3: We are continuing to work with our infrastructure department to

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Speaker 3: try and get as we always keep the air con

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Speaker 3: in that optimal range. The component the fan I'm in

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Speaker 3: to you that we had a bit of trouble with

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Speaker 3: last year. We've actually we've got a work around in

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Speaker 3: place that's holding the temperature in the proper range according

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Speaker 3: to all our data. But that the poor old aircon

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Speaker 3: is so old we've had to have that fan custom

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Speaker 3: manufactured because you can't buy them anymore. That's an indication

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Speaker 3: of how obsolete the calling system is. And you know,

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Speaker 3: I hate to keep bashing on about it, Katie, but

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Speaker 3: we desperately need a new hospital and this is just

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Speaker 3: a symptom of a really old, you know, obsolete, run down,

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Speaker 3: fifty year old building.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Chris, I do want to ask Someone's just text

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Speaker 1: through Dave in t we saying, Katie, can you ask

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Speaker 1: the Ceold and Health if the maternity would at the

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Speaker 1: Palmerston Hospital's ever been used?

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Speaker 3: No, look, not in any meaningful way, Katie. And it's

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Speaker 3: a good question and one that has come up quite

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Speaker 3: a bit throughout the particularly sense health Scope made their

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Speaker 3: unfortunate decision, and certainly maternity services was initially in the

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Speaker 3: planning for Palmerston Hospital, talked about as a key focus

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Speaker 3: out there that the challenge we have is that Palmerston

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Speaker 3: is a much smaller hospital. It's only one hundred beds

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Speaker 3: aredhs four hundred. We don't have an intensive care unit there,

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Speaker 3: we don't have a coronary care unit, and we don't

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Speaker 3: have surgery. We've got we do endoscopies and scopes and things,

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Speaker 3: but if you needed a fed income surgery, that has

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Speaker 3: to happen at Roldau and hospital, which means that if

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Speaker 3: for mums giving birth, if it's a low risk delivery,

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Speaker 3: it's generally pretty safe. But if a mum runs into

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Speaker 3: trouble delivering a baby, and that happens unfortunately from time

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Speaker 3: to time, we don't have those high acuity facilities out

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Speaker 3: there for mums that would need that extra level of care.

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Speaker 3: We'd actually have to bundle them into an ambulance and

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Speaker 3: drive them to Rule Darwin, which intensifies the risks significantly

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Speaker 3: for baby. And we're our position at the moment is

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Speaker 3: we just don't think it's safe enough to make it

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Speaker 3: into a maternity hub. Now, there is potential for that

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Speaker 3: site to be a new tertiary hospital in the future,

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Speaker 3: if we can secure the necessary funding from the federal governments.

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Speaker 1: Is that something you're working through with the Feds at

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Speaker 1: the moment in terms of that site potentially being a

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Speaker 1: new tertiary hospital.

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Speaker 3: Site possibly, And I need to be really clear, we

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Speaker 3: haven't made a decision about site yet and that's obviously

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Speaker 3: a matter for the Government of the day, but we

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Speaker 3: do need a reasonable port parcel of land to be

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Speaker 3: able to do it. And I think if we were

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Speaker 3: planning to go on all over again, Katie brem A

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Speaker 3: business park would probably be the optimum sort of strategic

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Speaker 3: positioning because you've got all the major arterial roads coming in,

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Speaker 3: you've got the airport right next door for Ara Medical

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Speaker 3: and so forth. Unfortunately, I think that horse has probably bolted.

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Speaker 3: I think the land availability there. The parcel of land

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Speaker 3: that the existing small Palmerston hospital and is around forty

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Speaker 3: five hectares and could very easily grow to become a

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Speaker 3: health precinct. It's also where Oscare are going to build

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Speaker 3: the new age facility, which is terrific news for the territory.

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Speaker 3: So there is and it's pretty central to Darwin Palmerston

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Speaker 3: in the rural area, good roads, good access. It kind

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Speaker 3: of makes sense. Yeah, not a decision we settled yet,

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Speaker 3: but it's certainly in our consideration. Right.

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Speaker 1: So there's a few sites being looked at by the

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Speaker 1: sounds of things, or at least a couple.

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Speaker 2: Chris, I'm going to.

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Speaker 1: Have to move really quickly with these last couple of

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Speaker 1: questions because we've got the Senator on the line waiting

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Speaker 1: for us. In terms of the further photos of the

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Speaker 1: roof at RDH being damaged, is that rectified at the moment.

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Speaker 1: I know we've spoken about the fact we need a

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Speaker 1: new hospital.

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Speaker 2: But is that fixed?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, those photos, Katie, were of damage that occurred during

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Speaker 3: Cyclone Feena. That was that damage had occurred during Cyclone Fena.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't new damage, Okay, So we are working on that,

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Speaker 3: and that the coverage had been removed and unfortunately, due

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Speaker 3: to the damage, roofs and water leaked in. But the

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Speaker 3: what happened on the weekend was some unfortunate water leakage,

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Speaker 3: but it perhaps wasn't as dramatic as the photos suggested.

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Speaker 3: That damage happen back during Fena.

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Speaker 1: Another quick one the hydro therapy pull out at the

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Speaker 1: Palmeston Hospital. People are really upset that they're not able

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Speaker 1: to access it in the way that they used to

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Speaker 1: be able to Chris, is this something that can be

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Speaker 1: relooked at?

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Speaker 3: Look, it's very difficult for us to reopen that one, Katie.

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Speaker 3: It is a clinical facility for rehab patients to come

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Speaker 3: and do their rehab under the care of physiotherapists and

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Speaker 3: occupational therapists and allied health professionals. It was never really

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Speaker 3: designed or meant to be hof operated as a public

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Speaker 3: access facility, and I acknowledge that it did for a

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Speaker 3: while while renovations were occurring at the Palmerston Public Pool,

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Speaker 3: But in terms of using that as a clinical support

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Speaker 3: mechanism for clinical care, we don't have any plans to

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Speaker 3: open it for general public access at this time.

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Speaker 1: Chris, just one final one the fund scrubs at the hospital.

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Speaker 1: You've made headlines for a memo being sent out telling

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Speaker 1: staff they can't wear fun scrubs made are you going

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Speaker 1: to reverse this decision?

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Speaker 3: Okatie. I didn't think I'd get to do this interview

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Speaker 3: without talking about scrubs. Look, I need to be really

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Speaker 3: clear on this. We do have a uniform policy, as

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Speaker 3: would pretty much any health department in the nation, but

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Speaker 3: there's flexibility around the margins. So you know, we have

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Speaker 3: fun scrub Fridays, and you know, I'll be at the

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Speaker 3: hospital this afternoon. Unfortunately, I'm a regular attender at the

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Speaker 3: Allen Walker Cancer Center and I go there to get

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Speaker 3: my treatment, and lots of people are wearing bright, colorful

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Speaker 3: fun scrubs and it makes it a much nicer environment

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Speaker 3: for people who are dealing with some pretty bloody, tough illnesses.

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Speaker 3: And so I think a fair bit has been made

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Speaker 3: of this, but certainly my position as the ce is

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Speaker 3: that we have a policy, but there's plenty of flexibility

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Speaker 3: to we fun scrubs on Fridays or particularly in areas

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Speaker 3: like pediatrics and cancer care, we encourage people to wear

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Speaker 3: bright colors because no one likes to think about children

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Speaker 3: being sick or people having cancer.

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Speaker 1: Well, Chris, all the best out there the SAVO for

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Speaker 1: your treatment, and please let all the Allen Walker cancer

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Speaker 1: staff know that we think they're absolute legends as well.

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Speaker 1: I know both my producer and I have had loved

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Speaker 1: ones go through their treatment out there. They do an

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Speaker 1: incredible job, so big shout out to them and we'll

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Speaker 1: talk to you soon.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure I'll.

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Speaker 3: Do that, Katie. They're terrific and they're taking very good

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Speaker 3: care of me.

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Speaker 2: I must say, I bet they are.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning, Chris Hoskin,

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Speaker 1: CEO of NTI, Hell, thank you,