Page 2573 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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of view. Let us look at the cost per bed day, for example, of medical salaries in the ACT and Australia. In the ACT, $33 a day; in Australia as a whole, $31 a day. We are 6.45 per cent more expensive in the ACT. That is medical salaries. We should bear in mind that nurses and others in recent days have been saying that doctors need to take some cuts. There is not a great deal to cut there, is there?
Let us look at nursing salaries. The Australian average, $74; the ACT average, $97 - a 31 per cent over-average payment in the ACT. It is the same with administration. In Australia, $19 per bed day; in the ACT, $36 per bed day - 89 per cent more in the ACT. It is 89 per cent more expensive to run a hospital bed in the ACT than it is elsewhere in Australia. Why Minister? Why does this have to go on? That, I might mention, does not take into account the nurses dispute of 1987, which I think would have made the differential between the nursing salaries in the ACT and the rest of Australia even more marked.
Let us look at the number of level 4 nurses used in the ACT's hospital system compared with, say, the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The Royal Adelaide Hospital has 795 beds, the combined Woden Valley and Royal Canberra Hospitals have 772 beds, so it is slightly smaller than Royal Adelaide. How many level 4 nurses does Royal Adelaide need? It needs nine. How many does the ACT's hospital system need? It needs 27 - three times as many as in comparable systems. Those figures do not vary from State to State, Minister; they are all consistent. The ACT is vastly overmanned, we have inefficient work practices and you are responsible and you should be making a decision about this.
Let us look at the food services. Food services are carried out in the ACT hospital system by in-house staff in each of the two hospitals. Staff from the hospital services division prepare on average 45 meals per shift per staff member, and this compares in a commercial kitchen with an average of 100 meals per shift per staff member - 100 to 45. On the current production level of 3,750 meals per day, private contracting arrangements have the potential to save up to $2.5m a year. (Extension of time granted)
This has not come as a surprise to the Minister for Health; this has been the situation for some years in the hospital system, and he has known about it for six months. Why has nothing happened? I hope we will have an answer to that question when the time comes. It should be noted that the average cost of meals produced for patients in the hospital is $9.43 each, whereas meals sold to non-hospital staff, visitors and others range from $1.50 to $5. But of course different people prepare those different meals.
Let us look at the cleaning services conducted in hospitals. Woden Valley Hospital is cleaned by outside contract staff, private contractors. Royal Canberra,
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