he's back!

Happy New Year to you and yours. It IS great to be back for another year. And my resolution is to have a happy and healthy 2007.

I won’t do a flashback on all the stories and issues that have erupted while Hinch Says was  in recess. Just say the following:

The execution of Saddam Hussein was right. The world is rid of a truly evil and cruel man. And even opponents of capital punishment are gagging on their protestations. It should have been done with more dignity even though he showed none to his thousands of victims. And as for showing his picture. At least you now know he’s dead. I mean, for decades, there were rumours that Adolf Hitler was alive and well and living in Argentina.

At home the issues for 2007 will be the same as 2006 but magnified. Industrial relations. With a federal election looming Labor will be trotting out people who have been hurt by the new IR laws and the Government will counter with good news stories about people who haven’t.

Water will be a major issue. There’s a story on Page one of the Herald Sun today about pipelines to save up to 80 per cent of irrigation water which is being lost to evaporation. Remember when Richard Pratt offered the Federal government $100 million to cover irrigation channels if they would match it. He was laughed at.

And how seriously can or should householders take it when it wasn’t that long ago millions of litres of drinking water were poured daily into the Burnley Tunnel project to stabilise it. And will they again waste millions of litres to top up Albert Park Lake for the Grand Prix?

To make things a joke the biggest water wasters are State government departments and we can’t know how much the usage has increased in the Premier’s department because their meter is faulty. Try telling that to the Water Police.

But the main issue is the one we have year after year. And that is health. Lengthy waiting periods for non-emergency surgery. Overcrowded wards. People sleeping on trolleys. And a classic case today about the terrorising of elderly, critically ill patients at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

A woman claims she was hit on the head with a telephone , spat on and verbally abused by a mentally ill patient who inexplicably roamed a critical care ward.

She was assaulted trying to protect her elderly father while a deranged person threatened to kill patients by tearing their life-saving tubes out.

That’s disturbing enough. The reaction by security staff and administrators is scary.

According to Yasmine Deering  security staff were called but refused to approach the man. When she approached the bed manager the woman put her hands over her ears and said Ms. Deering was making too much noise. One make nurse did arm himself with an iron bar to protect patients but the bed manager finally said ‘ call the police’ and went home.

What was a mentally disturbed person wandering freely in a critical care ward? Where was the supervision?  All this happened nearly a year ago and it took five months for Yasmine Deering to get an apology from the Hospital.

Time is still obviously not of the essence.  A hospital spokesman refused to discuss the case with the Herald Sun because it is being investigated by the Health Services Commissioner. What? A year later.

Oh, the hospital has taken some action. They also referred it to a clinical aggression management project to improve staff skills. Doesn’t answer the main question: Are violent psychiatric patients still being put with critically ill patients at Royal Melbourne?

Monday, January 8, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007