Legislative Council Tuesday 10 July, 2018 

Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Mrs HISCUTT

The Report on Termination of Pregnancy in response to the parliamentary notice of motion tabled on 3 July 2018 states under 'Conclusions and advice to government' a number of principles emerged as necessary for a safe, effective and accessible surgical termination service for Tasmania.

(1) How does the decision to only provide a publicly funded termination of pregnancy service in Hobart meet principle 1?

Patient-Centred. Services are shaped around the health needs of individual patients, their families and communities.

(2) How does the decision to only fund a publicly funded termination of pregnancy service in Hobart meet principle 2?

Equitable. Equitable access to essential services for women recognising women as competent and conscientious decision makers and recognising a women's right to exercise self-determination, sexual and reproductive freedom and sexual equality.

(3) How does the decision to only provide a publicly funded termination of pregnancy service in Hobart meet principle 3?

Accessible: Equitable access to services, regardless of geographic location, where possible minimising the need for patients to travel for services.

(4) How does the decision to only provide a publicly funded termination of pregnancy service in Hobart meet principle 4?

Affordable. Affordable services for all women regardless of their socioeconomic status.

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for Murchison for her question. The report prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services provides a list of principles that emerged consistently through the consultation process undertaken by the department.

On consideration of the feedback from stakeholders, the following principles emerged consistently as being necessary for a safe, effective and accessible surgical termination of pregnancy service for Tasmanian women.

          Patient-centred. Services are shaped around the health needs of individual patients, their families and communities. 

          Equitable. Equitable access to essential services for women, recognizing women as competent and conscientious decision makers and recognising a women's right to exercise self-determination, sexual               and reproductive freedom and sexual equality.

          Accessible. Equitable access to services regardless of geographic location, where possible minimising the need for patients to travel for services. 

          Affordable. Affordable services for all women regardless of their socioeconomic status.

 In addition, the principles of timely, safe, appropriate, transparent, holistic, targeted, consistent and sustainable also emerged through consultation.

 As the report states, the department was mindful of the principles when considering the advice provided in the report. This advice was, as summarised in the report, that -

the provision of adequate resourcing to deliver statewide surgical terminations in the public and/or private system is best provided through maintenance of the policy and funding position that has applied for over 10 years.

To be clear, this advice was reached with those aforementioned principles in mind.

I note that the Patient Travel Assistance Scheme is now available for this procedure and is a scheme designed to ensure equity of access for Tasmanians to specialist medical services by assisting eligible patients with the transport and accommodation costs of accessing these medical services.