Page 2361 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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There is a lot of local support for this proposal from many sectors. When somebody has a relative who has gone to other places for, say, open-heart surgery, which might involve bypass surgery and those sorts of things, it is inconvenient for many people. At the same time, none amongst those people would wish their loved ones to receive a service that could in any way be described as of a lesser standard than is provided, say, in Sydney. It is a major job for a government to set up one of these units and for it to compare well with the sorts of units that are in place and operating at a high level interstate. It is a difficult job.
The Government promised in the election campaign that it would continue with the planning for the unit. It is contingent on the completion of some of the construction work at the Woden Valley site, the diagnostic and treatment block in particular. It is most important that this planning stage is carried through fairly carefully. We aim to satisfy our election promises. This is an important one, and we have made this judgment on the basis of very careful consideration of the issue because large expenses are involved when we get to the point of providing the service in the ACT.
Our position in relation to the provision of this sort of service in the ACT has been quite different from that of our Liberal opponents. When in government, the Liberals fancied the idea of a private sector hospital providing these services and the Government leasing or - - -
Mrs Carnell: No, we do not. We said that that was a possibility.
MR BERRY: You favoured the idea. You sang its praises and said, "That private hospital might provide cardio-thoracic surgery". Its praises were sung by Mr Humphries, and Mrs Carnell is well known for her support for privatisation.
But our position is quite different. We are about providing access to affordable services in a strong public hospital system for all the people. We are not going to say that the ones that can afford it will go over there and the ones that cannot afford it will go to this substandard hospital over here. We will provide an adequate level of service for all of the people. It will be affordable and it will be accessible. There is none of this ideological claptrap about privatisation. This is about the provision of first-class services for the people of the ACT, and that is why the Government has taken this initial step in a very careful and considered way, to ensure that the services that eventually flow to the community are to a standard that is equal to that anywhere in Australia. I think we owe the people of the ACT nothing less.
Health Budget
MRS CARNELL: My question is to the Minister for Health.
Mr De Domenico: This is without notice, though, isn't it?
MRS CARNELL: Without notice, yes. The budget paper projects a decrease in the proportion of private patients using the public hospital system from 35.5 per cent in 1990-91 to just 30 per cent in the coming year; yet in the health budget an increase in in-patient fee revenue has been projected. Even after taking
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