- LETTER TO 3 POLITICIANS 01/02/06 -

Dear ......

I wish to record this request for information, on my website, and of course, your response should I have the courtesy of receiving one.

With 72% of individuals wanting change to the Medical Treatment Act 1988 and our daily papers regularly addressing the issue of Voluntary Euthanasia, I believe doing nothing is not an ongoing moral or financial option for any responsible government. The police wasting time and resources on investigating doctors who attend terminally ill people on a daily basis, would better serve the community by attending to genuine crime.

I was heartened to read the Sunday Herald Sun, January 22 article regarding the outcome of a study which showed 40 per cent of doctors will give sufficient pain relief to relieve suffering and end the lives of the terminally ill. Unfortunately it means that 60% are not helping patients to relieve pain to the maximum. The glass is very much, still half empty. I am not sure what percentage of doctors would be RTL advocates but the patient needs to be protected against the doctor's personal viewpoints, in the face of the patient's needs.

1  Health Budget: I would appreciate being advised where I may view the State Health Budget please. I mean the comprehensive one that would provide information on the breakdown cost of equipment, supplies, staffing, and the cost hopefully of maintaining "say" hospice care per head of population. Stuff like that. I've never really concentrated on the costings factor, being an emotional lobbyist, rather than hard nosed finance. But I intend to look into it on the basis that one PET machine (then $20 mil Federal) can cost almost the entire NSW Health Budget. Yet the machine whilst providing pictures does not actually cure anyone in itself. I find this stuff interesting, and wonder about the best use of a Health Budget dollar, and best return for value.

Questions? 
If there are 33 unsuccessful suicides for each "successful" one, has a cost analysis on suicides all up, been undertaken on the community as a whole?

What percentage of the 2300 annual suicides throughout Australia actually occurred in Victoria?

Are there statistics which reflect the ages of the successful and unsuccessful suicide bids? If so, where can I find them?

In a recent Senate Hearing I heard the year 2003 as being the latest figures available? Not available to the public perhaps, but to the Senate Committee, surely this is not the case?

What is thought to be achieved by "counseling a 70 yo" attempted suicide? I recently heard of a man who was given shock therapy because he was "depressed" with having developed bowel cancer. I found this difficult to believe but was reassured by two people that it was fact. I had thought shock treatment finished with Chelmsford(?). I think Shock treatment performed on a 70 yo is barbaric, and on what grounds could this treatment have been justified? (The cost of treatment and counseling, under similar circumstances, must be considered prohibitive at a certain point in an individual's life surely?).

2   Resolution

The wording of the resolution adopted by the Victorian State Conference of the Australian Labor Party, December 3,2005 is as follows:

" To make appropriate provision for people's wishes about the management of their future medical conditions to be respected, Labor will:

a) Give statutory recognition to enable competent Victorians to refuse treatment, or request treatment, for a future condition by way of an advance healthcare directive;

b) Limit statutory recognition of advance healthcare directives to apply
only to patients in the terminal phase of a terminal illness or who are in
a persistent vegetative state and who are incapable of making
decisions about medical treatment when the question of administering the treatment arises.

c) Create a register recording medical enduring power of attorney and advance healthcare directives completed by Victorians;

d) Provide for regular reviews of advance healthcare directives and validation every twelve months. This process must include advice to individuals on advancements in medical technology.

e) Require all healthcare institutions to record any existing medical
enduring power of attorney and advance healthcare directives on admission of patients;

f) Require all healthcare institutions to advise patients, in
consultation with their GP, of their rights under the Medical Treatment Act
1988 and of the option of completing an advance healthcare directive,
informing patients that there is no compulsion to complete an advance healthcare directive: and

g) Labor will consult with key stakeholders and the community concerning amendments to the Medical Treatment Act 1988 ."

Questions?  Where is the Resolution sitting now, in February?

Does your Office intend to initiate action regarding this resolution?

3   Case Study:

I have personally witnessed a patient's request for no medication to be given being overridden by the wife. The nurse acquiesced.

The friend, a retired gardener, continues to lie confined in a loungechair in the nursing home, unable to stand, feed, wipe his bottom, or shower these six years or so following 5 strokes. He can barely communicate and is paralysed down one side. He chose one avenue, but was overpowered by a wife who loves him, and he is too weak to argue his case. He looked at me and I looked at him as if to plead his case. As the wife attends his needs six days a week it is very hard to ensure his wellbeing is put above others needs to have him cling to life. The man is 75. I don't want to be banned by the wife from visiting him so chose not to intervene on his behalf once I said my piece gently first up, which she responded "but we have to do all we can for him"!.  I believe she is Jiving her life now through him, so two lives are wasting, and until he dies, she won't be able to move on, but her life will have closed off so it becomes a catch 22 situation.

An active outside man all his life he cried once when I couldn't find a hat to take him outside for a "walk" in his very heavy lounger, which the wife can't handle. Children rarely visited and so do outside day light hours. I found the hat! and made him very happy (for an hour). He has now shifted nursing homes recently and I am not sure what will happen to that idea now. I too am not getting any younger but it breaks my heart to see my friend of 20 years reduced to crying over an outing. He has recently been diagnosed with face cancer and yes, the wife is "taking him into Peter Mac in an ambulance". I was horrified to think she would consider chemo for him but "she'll see". I hope to god it won't be her decision!.

Questions? At what point is it considered, enough is enough?

Why can't it be decided by doctors to stop medication at the coal face eg heart tablets could be withdrawn and stopped when there is absolutely no chance of survival (I mean living, not just breathing!).

Instead of the nurse coming up to the patient each time in front of the relatives, dishing out medication (who may feel they have to insist), why don't they ask the patient their wishes in private and abide by that?

Observation: Medical staff needs to withstand pressure from the relatives and their authoritative manner usually ensures this can happen. The patient's wellbeing should be the only consideration. Choice, with autonomy.

I would appreciate comprehensive answers to my questions please, and I thank you for your time.

Mary Walsh
February 1, 2006

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