Voluntary Assisted Dying joins the queue of QH management failures

Whether you like it or hate it, the Palaszczuk Government introduced voluntary assisted dying to Queensland.

While the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act was passed in September 2021 and it is supposed to be available to eligible Queenslanders from 1 January 2023, Queensland Health management are still running in circles and do not know what they are doing to implement it.  

Well no surprises there, this is the same executive management that is cancelling elective surgery, creating huge wait-lists and making staff redundant at the same time as they are recruiting from overseas.  The Government should book them for the comedy festival, if only it wasn’t so serious …

NPAQ is concerned that the Hospital and Health Services have spent the VAD funding and they have no money or additional resources to set up the service.  

We hear from health management that the current expectation in some HHS’s is for practitioners to pick up the additional workload for no extra compensation.  

True, we are unsure what that workload will look like, it may be minimal.  However, there may also be a backlog of patients waiting for the VAD rollout date on 1/1/23.  Queensland Health should know what is planned, though we are not sure that they do.

For some of us, VAD is a minefield for ethical confusion where it could in practice be impossible to prevent compromise of the individual views and values of some of the practitioners involved.

NPAQ opposed VAD instead favouring additional funding and support for palliative care programs which give both the patient and family some dignity. In turn, increased palliative care funding and resourcing would take the load off overworked and stressed nurses and doctors.  VAD is a mess.

Our healthcare heroes are overworked and stressed and the fact that hospital management are still stuffing around implementing a solution after they knew about it for over fourteen months, tells us it is time for change before it is too late.

Hospital management should not be leaving it to the last minute to make decisions about how VAD will be funded and delivered.  VAD is a serious matter.  VAD should also be aligned with alternative programs for people in need and this must include better funded and resourced palliative care options.  

Queenslanders deserve quality and safe healthcare. Queensland Health deserves competent, capable, nurse-led hospital management, supported by locally elected independent Boards.  Boards that are informed by health professionals and free to focus on local health needs and solutions, enabled by a budget to deliver the healthcare Queenslanders need where they live.