Page 1675 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
matter of record. Of course, there is a major difference between the roughly six months and the roughly 18 months of the respective Ministers in their portfolios - a threefold difference in reality.
Mr Humphries raised the hospital crisis as a matter of public importance in this place on 15 November 1989. I asked a question relating to that today and Mr Humphries was unable to provide a clear-cut answer. I shall look forward to that answer. At the time Mr Humphries raised a series of issues that needed to be resolved. Eighteen months later, as Minister, has he resolved those issues, or is he going to blame his public servants for their role?
The issues raised then were raised by a letter that Mr Humphries suggested, on page 2570 of Hansard, fell off the back of a truck. It was a letter from the Interim Board of Directors of the hospitals, Royal Canberra and Woden Valley, to the Minister. In fact, Mr Humphries made a great deal of mileage out of that letter, illustrating that the year-to-date operating expenditure was $39.1m, which was $2.5m over the monthly pro rata allocation of available funds, and the possible containment of a $10m deficit. He went on to list the choices or the tough options - the introduction of productivity measures in food preparation and food distribution and so on. He referred on page 2572 to Mr Berry as "Sit-on-your-hands Berry" and said that he was being asked to take urgent action.
It is interesting to note that at the time Mr Berry had had that letter for a relatively short while. Mr Humphries had that letter in November and we are now about to go into May, nearly two years later - certainly 18 months later. I am exaggerating the time a little.
Mr Berry: Rounding it off.
MR MOORE: Rounding it off; that is right. In fact Mr Humphries knew of the problems - he had identified the problems - and he has not taken the appropriate action to resolve them. He has taken some peripheral measures around the outside but has not actually taken the action that was necessary.
I referred today to the number of level 4 nurses in the ACT hospital system. Mr Humphries himself identified that as one of the areas where we could provide some solution. He looked at the expenditure in hospitals in the ACT of $33 a day, whereas in Australia as a whole it was $31 a day. It was 6.45 per cent more expensive in the ACT. Has that problem to which he drew attention improved under Mr Humphries, or has it got worse? It has got worse. Mr Humphries went on at that time with a series of accusations about the state of the health system; and quite rightly so.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .