Page 2650 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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The board has taken the trouble to identify the problems in our system. The letter I referred to yesterday made very clear what those problems were and it went so far as to identify tough options for the Minister to pursue. I have had no comment from the Minister about those tough options. He has avoided comment on those tough options to a large extent, and I think you are entitled to ask what the Government intends to do about them. What is certainly true is that the board of directors has done something about them. It said, in effect, to the Minister, "These are the problems, these are the things that you, as Minister, or at least the system as a whole, have to direct your attention to, and we want your support in making sure that those problems are faced".
Instead of responding positively to what the board put before him, the Minister said, in effect, "Your jobs are on the line". That is an extremely dangerous signal to send to people who are tackling, in my view, serious and real problems facing our hospital system. I do not believe there is any justification for the Minister abandoning the board at this time and in this fashion. I therefore put before the Assembly today a motion which indicates in no uncertain terms what the view of this Assembly is with respect to the existing arrangements for management of our hospital system and also for the direction we should take into the future.
I refer, Mr Speaker, not to any policy of the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, or whatever, on the management of hospital systems. I refer to the report which was commissioned by the Federal Labor Minister more than a year ago into our health services, the report of Dr Brendon Kearney. I want to quote from the report, in particular the recommendations Dr Kearney makes with respect to the management of our hospital system. These words are used:
It is my recommendation that the new direction -
that is, the new direction in hospital management -
be based on the establishment of a principle of a hospital board of directors, and the adoption of a 'one principal hospital' concept.
Under the heading "Hospital Board of Directors", he says:
That a fully constituted, single board of directors (for the Royal Canberra and Woden Valley Hospitals) be established to take effect from 1 July 1989.
That the board have powers, privileges, duties and responsibilities similar to those accorded to hospital boards throughout Australia.
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