Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland) (18:10): It is with great disappointment that I speak about the health crisis in Maitland. We acknowledge that Maitland Hospital has had a huge investment in its infrastructure, but the fact remains that the staffing is just not up to standard. I have been so concerned about this that I have written to the health Minister. Recently, referrals were made to the regional health Minister about the people who have come to me with examples of being left waiting at Maitland Hospital's emergency department for hours and hours. It has gotten so bad now that even the Bureau of Health Information statistics tells us that we are the worst in the State. A couple of months ago, one in five people were walking out of Maitland Hospital before they received treatment. The most recent Bureau of Health Information statistics state it is now one in four. That is 25 per cent of people. The problem is that those people end up coming back.

When I raised the issue a couple of weeks ago in question time, members heard about someone who waited for 100 hours on a trolley in the emergency department because they could not get a bed. The throwaway line by the Government was that that person should have seen a GP. That is not appropriate because that person ended up in the intensive care unit [ICU]. That is a real concern. A person does not need a GP if they end up in ICU. It means they have a serious medical condition. I am very upset to hear so many people in my community say, "I won't go to Maitland Hospital. I'll go somewhere else." That is such a poor reflection on the hospital just because it is understaffed. People are saying, "I am so grateful to the nurses, wardspeople, cleaners, every staff member and medical officers." They are so grateful to everyone they interact with for the work that they put in, but they also understand that those staff are under enormous stress.

I have had representatives from the Hunter New England Local Health District saying, "Don't worry about it, Jenny. It's all under control. We've got new people coming in all the time." I was motivated to have a look at some of the positions that are being advertised for Maitland Hospital. I am appalled to say that at least half of those positions are temporary. We have a hospital that is massively under stress. The nurses, doctors, wardsmen, psychiatrists, midwives—everyone employed at the hospital—are struggling to get help, yet they are only getting offered temporary replacements.

I will read out the list of replacements because it is important that members hear about what they are doing: various emergency medical trainees—junior medical officer, unaccredited—temporary; various emergency medical trainees, stage one—temporary; various emergency medical trainees, advanced—temporary; resident medical officer, rotational training—medical officer, general—temporary, with a 12-month multi-site contract; trainee unaccredited OBGYN—junior medical officer unaccredited—temporary; various rehab trainees—medical officers—temporary; trainees in anaesthesia—temporary; senior resident medical officer in orthopaedics—temporary; trainee unaccredited general medical officer—temporary; senior resident medical officer, general—temporary; various psychiatry trainees, advanced—temporary; trainee unaccredited in psychiatry—temporary; senior resident medical officer in intensive care—temporary. All of these are temporary positions, many of them junior. The concern for me is that even the senior ones are temporary. Just imagine being a nurse, a junior medical officer or other medical officer in that system and thinking help is on the way when we are not attracting or recruiting full-time people into this workforce. We are not attracting highly qualified people.

My understanding of what is going to happen is what is happening on the ground: hardworking staff who are tired, stressed and fed up are getting junior people who have just been offered a temporary contract to help them with the load. Do those hardworking staff look at that person coming onto their ward and think, "Wow! Hallelujah, I've got some help"? No, they think, "This is someone I'm going to have to help to learn what they have to do, and in 12 months they'll be out the door and I'll be left here." This is not the way to run a health system. Our hospital is struggling. I urge Government members to do more. The Government cannot keep telling us that it is increasing staffing when we only have temporary positions instead of positions that will have a positive outcome on health into the future.