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Presentation by Graeme Innes AM, Disability Discrimination Commissioner

21 October 2009

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, traditional owners of the land on which we meet.

Thank you Anne-Mason and Ruth for this invitation to address your AGM on health access issues, and in particular access to height adjustable examination beds in primary health care facilities.

Being the opportunist that I am I cannot miss this chance to also update you on progress in relation to the proposed Premises Standards – an issue I know your members will be keenly interested in.

In some ways the issue of height adjustable examination beds is a classic case study of community advocacy.

It starts with individuals identifying problems that need to be fixed based on their own life experiences; it involves individuals and their organisations researching the legal, political, policy and practical possibilities for achieving change; it requires the development of strategies, alliances and partnerships to pursue a goal; it demands a prolonged and tenacious determination to stick with it and it often requires a willingness to achieve progressive change through compromise without loosing site of the end game.

This particular issue is also a good example of the difficulties of using legal processes, which rely on individual discrimination complaints, to drive change in our community.

A little bit of history

While most of you are aware of the history of this advocacy let me remind you of the main goal and milestones.

Work on trying to ensure all General Practices in Australia provide access to height adjustable examination beds arose out of research completed in 2004 by Sheila King from Access for All Alliance, a small community group based in Hervey Bay in Queensland .

Members of Access For All Alliance were concerned they were not getting the same level of health care as other patients because they were missing out on regular examinations and screening because they could not use the fixed height examination tables.

It was clear that access to height adjustable examination beds would make examinations easier for many patients with a disability and older patients.

Sheila decided that data on what happened in other parts of Australia would be valuable and went about contacting almost every GP surgery in Australia to ask if they had height adjustable examination beds. You cannot get much more tenacious than that and we must all acknowledge Sheila's invaluable contribution to this advocacy.