Page 2457 - Week 09 - Thursday, 17 September 1992
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most budgets since 1989, seems to have been dropped from the Labor Party's agenda. This will mean that the pressure on the hospital and on the nurses and on the aged and the long-term convalescent patients will continue. We will continue to see elderly patients discharged from our hospitals before they can really cope on their own at home, because the system needs the beds and there is nowhere else to send them. Is this the quality public health system that Mr Berry talks about? I certainly hope not.
The budget papers say that the cost per bed day is 30 per cent higher in the ACT than it is elsewhere. This is no great surprise. We have known this since 1988, if not before. Yet we are told this as something of a new revelation. I am afraid for the whole health system if this Labor Government has only just learnt of this fact. I say it again - costs per bed day are 30 per cent higher. What does the Government plan to do about it? There is no mention of a strategy in the budget - only the lame comment that it will be investigated. Mr Berry may not like it; but that is just not good enough. He must do better.
Madam Speaker, I welcome the start of planning for a new cardio-thoracic unit. It is certainly a much more important priority than funding for an abortion clinic. Mr Berry was very keen on that. He said that it would go ahead before other priorities. Mr Berry has obviously been set straight by his Cabinet colleagues.
Mr De Domenico: He got done again, did he?
MRS CARNELL: That is right. They told him to get on with the cardio-thoracic unit - a very wise decision, I might say. As I said, I am glad that there is at least some movement on this facility, and I welcome that; but no provision has been made in forward estimates for the cardio-thoracic unit, or, for that matter, for most of Mr Berry's other relaunched initiatives. How will the recurrent costs of the hospice, the cardio-thoracic surgery and mammography be funded in future years? I hope that Mr Berry is not going to tell us that these projects were not funded in forward estimates because he did not know what they cost. Mr Berry should know what they cost before introducing the initiatives. Again there is the absence of a strategic approach.
One thing we do see is more funds for case-mix data. Case-mix data is important. It helps identify priority areas and assists in the allocation of funds. It allows us to make comparisons between the performance of our public hospital and those elsewhere. Last year's Select Committee on Hospital Bed Numbers clearly identified the importance of case-mix measures. Mr Berry has constantly told us that case-mix is being implemented. "Yeah, yeah", he said, "don't you worry about that". Now we discover otherwise. Case-mix implementation has been too slow, but now at least it is getting a kick along. It is disturbing to think that the Labor Government has only now realised the importance of this information. This information has been available through New South Wales for many years. Even little country hospitals have adequate access to this information. Like urban renewal, these things seem to take a lot of time to dawn on the Labor Left.
Madam Speaker, the budget heralds an 8 per cent decrease on last year's spending in health promotion funds. There is 8 per cent less than last year for health, community and sporting groups. This is short-sighted because it leads to increased costs down the line. There is wisdom in spending on projects which
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