Page 3204 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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Lanyon High School
MR CORNWELL: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Education, Mr Wood. Mr Wood, concerning the Lanyon High School, which was listed in the Government's recent forward design program, can you advise the peak enrolment being planned for this high school, given that the new primary schools in Tuggeranong such as Gordon and Conder will have a peak enrolment, we understand, of some 750 students?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, the planning for Lanyon High School and the process we need to go through to get formal Cabinet approval to put it onto the program and subsequently to have it built are presently occupying the Department of Education. Yesterday I saw a draft document concerning the high school. I will not give you a figure, but it is certainly within the range of our routine high schools. I will come back with some more detail when that is available.
Mr Cornwell: When might that be, Minister?
MR WOOD: It is well advanced in the working stage right now. I do not expect that it will be too long.
Woden Valley Hospital - Television Sets
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister for Health, Mr Berry. There have been reports that Woden Valley Hospital is charging for the use of television sets installed in the obstetrics section of the hospital. Can the Minister advise why the hospital has decided to charge for the use of the already installed television sets? Does this charge apply to all television sets in the hospital system? Finally, does the Minister concede that charging for the service can discriminate particularly against disadvantaged women who are confined to bed for long periods because of pregnancy complications?
MR BERRY: I thank Ms Szuty for the question. With the redevelopment program and as all wards progress - this is my latest advice - we will have remote control television for each bed. The maternity unit is the first to have the new system. Currently, in other wards an outside company supplies television sets at a standard hiring rate. This will cease in future. As the newly refurbished ward areas have leakage protection electrical circuitry, private radios and television sets will not be allowed.
I do not know whether this is of interest, but the rates for television hire in the maternity unit are $5 a day for the first couple of weeks, $4 a day for the next and $3 a day thereafter, or $25 a week. These rates, I am informed, are the same as those charged by the hire company and they compare very favourably with hospitals in Sydney where, also, no private radios or televisions are permitted.
What it boils down to is that we are regarded as part of the real world when it comes to the Commonwealth providing us with funding. We have to manage our hospitals in much the same way and recover funds in much the same way as would be considered ordinary in other States. On the face of it, it appears that we are doing nothing different from what occurs in Sydney and it is, therefore, not out of the ordinary. In relation to the impact that it might have on patients - - -
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