DALZELL: Minister Stuart Robert, thank you for joining us. Why have children with disabilities
waiting up to 700 days for a diagnosis?
ROBERT: You should ask the state health Minister, because they are responsible for the state
hospitals. Putting that aside that that is a state and health issue, under section 25
the NDIS act, if you have a child under the age of six that you believe has developmental
delay, you can take...
DALZELL:... The law says, section 24 of the act says if you are permanent or semipermanent
disability, you can access the NAS but section 25 are specifically designed for early development
child.
ROBERT: If you’ve got a child from zero to six, they can gain access through early
childhood intervention pathway to get that early intervention. Of course, once they turn
seven, that is when the diagnosis is necessary for them to continue with the scheme.
DALZELL: That may be technically true but the families we spoke to said they couldn't
access any early intervention funding until they had that diagnosis. These are children
under the age of seven.
ROBERT: I encourage all families to get onto the NDIS website, called the early intervention
partners, their 18 around the country and if there are any concerns, take your child
in and have a discussion with that early intervention partner. Because that is what the stream is
therefore.
DALZELL: You're encouraging them to have a discussion but the AMA 's encouraging you
to have a discussion with the end DIA in that you are potentially out of touch with what
is having on the ground. As a possibility?
ROBERT: No, I'm pretty clear on how the NDIA runs. Run the organisation. It knows its response
built is under the act and it knows it needs to get children in quickly and it is doing
that. The quarterly data came out yesterday and it shows access decisions for children
into early intervention is three days.
DALZELL: When not talking about access decisions here. When talking about a diagnosis. Why
are families telling us that not able to access NDIS funding without the diagnosis?
ROBERT: I'm telling you that is incorrect. You can access funding under the...
The families are lying to us because we know, I'm saying that through the pathway is now,
they can go through early childhood, to their early childhood partner to get access to the
children and if they're having trouble with that, contact NDIS or the local MP or maybe
because the law is very clear. My agency is very clear, the pathways are very clear, we
are absolutely committed to taking care of children in the early childhood pathway and
access right now, six months ago, it was 43 days and today it is three days from committing,
speaking to an early childhood partner to accessing the NDIS.
DALZELL: Getting back to the diagnosis, aside from the NDIS funding and if we accept the
government's funding that you don't need a claim and we accept your version of events
over the families I spoke to. Diagnosis are important for other reasons for them it effectively
explains a reason why a child has a development or delay. Is it except the bull children waiting
up to two years to find out the reason for the delay?
ROBERT: Of course not, that is a reason you should ask the state health minister who runs
it. Having said that, I anticipate all this. We started a second trial that will finish
in a number of weeks and all going well and it seems to be going well and it will go to
market for a functional assessment stop from the 1 July, it will start a functional assessment
for the basis of access and is designed to make it a lot more quantifiable, a lot faster
people and that way, the issue is not questioning the disability but looking at what function
they have and what level of support they will need to speed the whole system up. I don't
run the state hospitals.
DALZELL: So it issues but the status as the rollout of the NDIS has put increased pressure
on the state -based diagnostic teams in public hospitals and they need extra Commonwealth
funding. Is it something you would potentially consider?
ROBERT: No, because it is wrong.
DALZELL: That anymore funding?
ROBERT: The NDIS is replacing state -based support. Parents with children with developmental
delay, the same numbers we have now, the same sort of we had two, three, four, five years
ago, when it states run disability services. All the NDIS is doing for permanent significant
disability is replacing what the states initially run. This is not a huge surge of people coming
through. The boys had a children with developed delay and the states have already dealt with
it should have been dealing with it so why is it now the state hospital system saying
there is a particular problem, especially when the Federal Government funding for public
hospitals has increased by 66% over the last six years. The state has always had the responsibly.
DALZELL: You're the minister responsible for the NDIS scheme. A new concerned that children
are waiting up to two years for a diagnosis and wouldn't you want to see that rectified
and wouldn't want to see if you could take money out of the NDIS to help them speed up
that diagnosis process?
ROBERT: Under section 25, you don't need a diagnosis to access that...
DALZELL: As are explained, there are other elements and other reasons for a diagnosis,
including working out the reason for developmental delay is important for other reasons other
than accessing the NDIS.
ROBERT: Absolutely and it is a state response ability and it is very clear that we understand
what is state and federal. I know everyone wants the Federal Government to solve everything
a problem but we can't. States have primary response ability for healthcare at state hospital
level and they are responsible for it. Have the states raised this with you? They have
not.
DALZELL: Will you raise it with them?
ROBERT: The state health minister is a very clear on the responsibilities. I'm clear on
mine and I am also clear that you don't need a diagnosis under section 25 in the early
childhood pathway and I encourage parents, if they're having any issues, to contact the
NDIS or indeed their local Member of Parliament or contact my office.
DALZELL: The Federal Government, at this stage, doesn't have any plans to ensure kids wait
longer for a diagnosis?
ROBERT: We don't plan to step in and solve the failings of state hospitals because that
there is possibility.