Page 2904 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
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Let the last come first, the hospice. At this very moment there are a number of people in Woden Valley Hospital, especially ward 2A, who could more appropriately be in other surroundings. I will not give the figure for that, although I have discussed this, because I would not want people in the public press somehow to be counting numbers. However, there are a significant number of people who would be better in some kind of hospice facility. It would be better for them, for their health, for their last months or last year, or however long it might be.
Furthermore, as we speak of that, it would be better for the hospital system that they were not in ward 2A in Woden Valley Hospital, as it now is. The whole hospital system would be more effective if those hospital beds could be occupied otherwise. It is at a considerable cost that we do not have a hospice. Let me repeat that: It is at a considerable cost that we do not have a hospice. We need a hospice not only for those people who need it but for the overall health system.
In connection with this, apparently we do not have an adequate cancer registry in the ACT. It is a subject I have some interest in. I am reliably informed that about 400 people per annum die from cancer in the ACT. Of course, they are 400 or so individual cases - some die at home, some die quickly, some linger. Perhaps what they die of is related to cancer rather than the cancer itself. So, one would not want to make a generalisation about those 400 people. But many of those 400, especially those who cannot remain at home where there are not carers, would benefit now, not in 1992 or 1993, from the establishment of a hospice - now, not a year from now or two years from now.
Let us recall Mr Berry's feelings about a hospice in November 1989. This is from the Canberra Chronicle of 14 November 1989. It reported:
The ACT Hospice Society has welcomed the decision by Minister for Community Services and Health, Wayne Berry, to begin planning for a hospice in the ACT.
Mr Berry announced, in the context of a statement on ACT public hospitals, that the need for a hospice would be included in future planning.
Well, that talk goes on. It would be fair to say that under the former Government that did not come to a conclusion; but it was in the budget and we may hear more about that. Now it has been put off again and that is a very considerable worry. To do Mr Berry justice, I am aware that he is sympathetic to the hospice movement. He made those comments today and we have been at meetings together sponsored by the Hospice Society. But I have to ask him: Why delay any further? Why put it off to the budget after next? Why not make this an item right now?
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