WARNING: this article contains material that may be distressing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
A coalition of Torres Strait leaders has rejected a Queensland Government report into the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS), amid accusations it lacks detail.
The report is the result of an investigation into the region’s health service, prompted by community concern over hospital deaths.
Torres Strait Island Regional Council Mayor, Phillemon Mosby, said the coalition wrote to then premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in May last year, calling for an independent coronial investigation.
“For a population of 15,000 having three to four [preventable] deaths per week was very alarming [and] traumatising,” he told NITV.
“The psychological trauma it was having on families trying to deal with not only the high cost of living, but having to manage [multiple] sorry business.
“Having in the back of our minds, ‘why are people, our families, dying such deaths that could have been prevented?'”
The coalition consists of three local government councils across the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area, as well as the region’s federal body, the Torres Strait Regional Authority.
Torres Strait Island Regional Council (TSIRC) Mayor Phillemon Mosby, Torres Shire Council Mayor Elsie Seriat and Northern Peninsula Area Mayor Robert Poi Poi take a stand.
Cr. Mosby said the coalition requested to preview the report before publishing, and felt insulted when they were instead invited to be briefed on the day the report was to be released.
He said the report lacked proper consultation and detail and wasn’t what the coalition had asked for.
“We wanted to stop what we strongly felt is culling of our Indigenous people,” he said.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s an internal review of the hospital and health service.
“Leaders are concerned, leaders that have statutory obligation and responsibility to call out under our legislation, anything that is a natural disaster or health crisis.”
Report highlights health gaps
A party of five investigators assessed life expectancy, potentially avoidable deaths, chronic disease prevalence, preventable hospitalisations and social determinants across the entire TCHHS region.
Queensland’s Health Minister, Shannon Fentiman, who instigated the report, said she was disappointed that the coalition had not welcomed it.
She said a key finding in the report was that the ongoing higher rate of potentially avoidable deaths in the TCHHS is consistent with outcomes for First Nations people across Australia.
“There is a gap and we have to do more to make sure that we’re providing culturally appropriate, culturally safe care,” she said.
The Minister said that the report also highlighted positive change in the health status of the region.
“Babies born with a low birth weight in the Torres Strait have halved in recent years, from 12 per cent to 6 per cent,” she said.
“There has [also] been a small reduction in preventable hospitalisations in the region.”
On the other hand, the report noted that perinatal deaths in the region were higher than the rest of Queensland and on an upward trend since 2016.
Minister Fentiman said the TCHHS was working hard to turn around the region’s health status and had increased First Nations health checks by 20 per cent in 12 months.
“There has been a real lot of hard work done over the last few years to improve health outcomes – we know there’s more work to do,” she said.
Over 12 months, investigators interviewed over 70 people, reviewed 400 documents and made 8 requests for information.
Throughout the report, investigators note data quality issues due to data collection and record keeping practices, that limit the scope of their investigation.
Cr. Mosby questioned the prevalence of community input in the interviews and the taskforce integrity.
“The task force is made up by people that they’ve hand-picked, [many] are employees of Queensland Health,” he said.
In a written response to NITV, the Minister maintained that the investigation is an independent process and ongoing.
‘One size fits all’ approach
The report acknowledges sizeable differences in the needs and profiles of hospitals in the north and the south of the TCHHS region.
Wakaid tribal Elder Robert Sagigi says he was interviewed from his renal dialysis chair, via a teleconference for the investigation.
Health has been a lifelong battle for Mr Sagigi, who is tired of losing family members while advocating for better infrastructure and services in the region.
“I’m a renal patient – I have one foot in the grave already – I don’t want my next generation to come and sit dialysis, that’s why I’m setting this up,” he said.
“We’ve got health services to look after our people, but it’s not happening, the services don’t reach the grassroots level.”
The report found that government policy changes in 2012 saw funding and job cuts, the effects of which are still being felt today.
Wakaid Tribal Elder Robert Sagigi says Torres communities should be managed separately to Cape communties.
Mr Sagigi says there was once a better health care model available, one created in the 90s by Torres Strait Islander health professionals.
He’s calling on the government to consult with communities and implement the model again in full.
“All the programs that it ran off [were] being managed at that community level, by health workers,” he said.
Mayor Phillemon Mosby said the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Areas were intrinsically different to other regions and needed their own model.
“To take a model of care from the mainland and expect it to work in the Torres Strait is just a nightmare.”
Minister Fentiman said one of the eight recommendations made by the report was to implement the “principles” of the Torres Model of Care, which she supported.
“[But], what works on Mer Island might be very different to what works on Horn Island,” she said.
Calls for better control could be answered
Investigators also identified that there is a large enough population in the Torres Strait to explore the feasibility of a fully-funded, community-controlled health care service for the region.
Chair of the region’s native title body Gur A Baradharaw Kod (GBK), Ned David, said this was an opportunity for the region to take back control of its services.
Mr David was part of the investigation’s taskforce committee and commended the report.
“To be in control of the investment overall, resources and people that are part of the health, we’d be able to determine where the needs are, more importantly, determine what resources or investments are directed to that particular need,” said Mr David.
Chair of Native Title body GBK Ned David said he wants to move on from the report and keen pushing for more services in the region.
Mr David said he was concerned a coronial investigation would be costly and prolong the process of getting much needed services to the Torres Strait.
“We can’t keep having these exercises where everything has to come to a standstill while we wait,” he said.
“People need to access services, people need to be confident in the fact that we’re trying to do some things to improve the services.”
The Queensland Government announced $1.4 million dollars to implement findings of the report.
A second and final report will be released later this year, which will investigate workforce and cultural safety at the TCHHS.
