Health Care for Nauru Detainees Not Up to Scratch
AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, has welcomed the release of the report of the Australian government health delegation's visit to Nauru, but said far from reassuring observers, the report confirms the urgent need to send an independent delegation to the island.
Dr Glasson said the report paints a picture of a hospital that would not be acceptable if it were functioning on Australian soil.
"The detainees are the responsibility of the Australian government and should have access to the Australian standard of care," Dr Glasson said.
"The hospital is clearly not equipped for medical or surgical emergencies. It has no functioning blood bank, substandard plumbing and an unreliable electricity supply with no back up generator.
"Even when the government team's recommendations have been implemented this hospital will not meet the standards of a very basic rural Australian hospital.
"Without physically examining the detainees its impossible to determine whether or not the care provided is adequate or appropriate.
"The team met with an unspecified number of asylum seekers whose health concerns were almost universally assessed by the team as minor. No formal assessment of the health status of any asylum seekers was undertaken and every comment made by asylum seekers about their health or health care provision in the report was interwoven with statements about the asylum seekers desire to go to Australia.
"An observation of some of the female asylum seekers was that the lack of water for washing had led to skin problems, circumstances confirmed by the visiting government team.
"The Government admits in the report that Independent Organisation for Migration (IOM) can't provide all necessary or emergency care to detainees.
"They can only provide primary care with the expectation that basic secondary care is provided by the Nauru hospital. All tertiary care must be provided off shore.
"The report's description of services in the processing centre is very limited and makes it difficult for outsiders to assess its adequacy.
"The government's terms of reference for its visit expressly exclude any assessment of the health care provided by IOM.
"The Australian Government is determined to establish a clear agreed process for handling any future requirements of the Government of Nauru directly on a government-to-government basis, preventing any objective analysis of the process.
2 February 2004
CONTACT: Judith Tokley (02) 6270 5471 / (0408) 824 306