Page 590 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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Hospitals - Nursing Staff
MR BERRY: My question is directed to the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts. Noting the Canberra Times headline, "Conditions at ACT hospital described as Third-World", bearing in mind the cuts in services in our hospitals which, of course, have led to massive waiting lists, and given that in that article the Minister is quoted as conceding that in certain areas there are not enough people, will the Minister now deny that potential nursing staff are being turned away as costs are cut?
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I absolutely deny that potential nursing staff have been turned away. I welcome Mr Berry's question as a chance to clear the air. First of all, let me reaffirm something which has been said before repeatedly by me and which Mr Berry continues to pretend is not being said: There are no cuts in services. Services are being provided to the people of the ACT on a continuing basis in all areas of health care. There is no area of the health services being provided by this Government which has been cancelled. Certainly in some areas one would like to have more responsiveness than is the case at the present time. That does not mean that the services are not there. The services are there, and as I have said - I have challenged Mr Berry in the past and I challenge him again: If he finds some service that the Government has cancelled or some thing that the Government has closed or something of that kind, please come and tell me about it. I would like to know about it. We would all like to know about it.
It is, unfortunately, quite alarmist and irresponsible of an individual in the hospital system to suggest that there is some comparison between our public hospital system and Third World hospitals. I have to say that my assessment of the health system in the ACT is different from Mr Berry's when he was in office - not because there is a significant difference between those two periods of time, but because I think we realistically have to accept that the ACT hospital system faces serious problems. Mr Berry fails to mention that the hospitals in the ACT failed to obtain accreditation while he was Minister. That is a reflection of a problem.
Mr Berry described that system as a first-class hospital system. That is looking back on events with rose-coloured glasses. It was not a first-class hospital system. Even today, I would not go so far as to describe our hospital system as a first-class hospital system. It needs to be improved, and that is why, as I have said many times in the past, this Government is spending $166m to improve the quality of health care being provided in Canberra.
That is the single reason for our expenditure of that amount. I can assure the Assembly that our system is not in any way comparable with Third World standards. We are
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