Page 4411 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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The developers are talking about major surgery such as major heart surgery and complex obstetrics procedures. More services will be cut from the public hospital system. Therefore there will be less access for the ordinary person in the street. Again, the rich will do well. What this Government is doing is setting about creating a demand for private beds, and it is doing it in a cruel and calculating way as it forces people on to these extended waiting lists. They will be even longer, irrespective of the efforts of the hospital list monitoring committee, because there is nothing at all in there that would suggest that there will be any changes to the delivery of services.
There will be fewer services. Already the community, the staff and the medical profession have questioned the Government's plans and raised serious issues of concern. They have identified major flaws in the plans, and it is about time that the Government listened and reviewed this disastrous plan before it destroys the public hospital system, at least before it destroys access to it by the ordinary Canberran. The rich and the well off will do well with this Government.
Then we go to the disastrous state of our ambulance services. All of the statements that have been made by this Minister have not helped. He based his latest achievements on recruiting seven extra staff to the Ambulance Service, and things would be right after that. We know now that, even with those seven extra staff on duty, if the ambulance officers do not work overtime there will still be one less station every shift from now until the 26th of this month. So, who does this Minister think he is kidding? He is not kidding the community of Canberra. The fact of the matter is that ambulance services are in disarray because of this Minister.
Community health centres are under attack by this Minister. They are under threat because of this Minister's indicated rationalisation of community health centres. My colleague Mrs Grassby will deal with community health centres, but clearly this is a serious matter, a matter of great public importance, and this Government must turn around, because if it does not our services will suffer more. It is the efforts of the Australian Labor Party in opposition that will force this Government to turn around, as we focus attention on its disastrous management of our hospital system and the cruel and calculating way in which it is attacking the people of the ACT and the services that they deserve.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (3.19): Mr Berry has quite a nerve in rolling in here and touting his own expertise in the matters of hospital management and delivery of health services, given his own sorry record in this area - - -
Mr Duby: Shoddy.
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