Page 3805 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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MR BERRY: No. 5 on the Liberal ticket - a bit touchy, I would suggest. I would not borrow for a house on the strength of it.
We must take into account the latest national health strategy report on hospital services. It states that operating costs are related to several activity indicators, such as the number of admissions, occupied bed days, the proportion of surgical admissions, case-mix, the number of investigations and so on. The whole issue is complex and needs considerable management skill. Bed numbers and waiting lists are not even mentioned in the national health strategy report on hospital services.
You should read these reports before you put together your terms of reference. It shows that you still have no knowledge about the way that hospitals operate. It shows that you still do not know how budgets should be managed in the hospital system. Mr Humphries, I suggest to you that you should have learned from your period in office, but it appears that you have not.
Let us look at the proposed terms of reference. They mention the impact on the quality of patient care. The quality of patient care in ACT hospitals is not determined by bed numbers; it cannot be determined by bed numbers. You can have a 1,000-bed hospital providing a poor standard of care. A hospital's quality of care is determined by its staff, their dedication, skills and training, an appropriate level of staffing to support the number and type of patients being seen, the infrastructure and equipment available to it and its financial management. Of course, quality assurance programs are being used at Woden Valley to monitor and measure the quality of clinical services, including the impact of any changes. Of course, that refers to the hospital redevelopment program. You do not want to reinvestigate that. You might uncover a few things that embarrass you.
Let us talk a little more about fast tracking. There could be a few little embarrassing things there. You would not want to do that. In terms of the impact on available hospital beds, the ACT Board of Health has advised me - and remember, Mr Humphries, that these are the people who are managing the place, under your Health Services Act - that it has a number of options that it will take into consideration when assessing the need to reduce available beds. These options concern budgetary performance - - -
Mr Jensen: In accordance with your budget.
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries does not talk about inquiring into the Government's budget. He has the opportunity to do that in the Estimates Committee hearings, and I have to say that he is not doing a very good job at all.
Mr Kaine: He is not getting too many answers, either.
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