Page 444 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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Let us go back another year to the first six months of the financial year 1990-91. This was a period when my colleague Mr Humphries was Minister for Health. For all those who may have forgotten, you could not pick up a newspaper or turn on a radio or television at that time without hearing Mr Berry berating Mr Humphries for his handling of the health budget. What do you think the budget overrun was for the six months to December 1990? It was approximately $4.4m. To summarise, the six months to December 1992 show a blow-out of $6.2m, or $4.2m without superannuation; the six months to December 1991 show a blow-out of $1.8m; and the six months to December 1990 show an overrun of approximately $4.4m. It is very hard to find Mr Berry's great improvement in this health budget.
Let us look at the figures in another way. Let us look at the total amount spent in health in each of the three six-month periods. It is important to background these figures with some of the statements that Mr Berry has made in this area. Mr Berry has regularly stated that health is doing more for less. Let us compare the figures. In the six months to December 1990, the total amount spent was approximately $104m; in the six months to December 1991, the total amount spent was $107.05m; and in the last six months to December 1992, the total amount spent was $102.526m. These figures show that, even with the rhetoric of the Chief Minister, all parts of the ACT Government would be required to make savings of 2 per cent. ACT Health has spent almost $13m more than it spent last year.
Mr Berry whinges that the overruns are all because activity levels have increased. Why did the Minister not budget for increased activity levels? That should surely be an important consideration in the budgeting process. National health strategy No. 2 on hospital services in Australia states:
It is anticipated that the Australian trend of the past decade of increasing numbers of admissions, but declining numbers of bed days will continue throughout the next decade. Admission rates are projected to increase by 30% in the period 1986-2001 but this will be compensated for by a continuing decline in average length of stay with a resultant decline in overall bed days of perhaps as high as 20%.
This report went on to project that the increase in admissions in the ACT would be approximately 40 per cent due to a higher than average population growth. It seems that everyone, except the Minister, knew about projected increased activity rates. The health system in the ACT is clearly in disarray. It is a very serious situation. It goes beyond politics. People's lives are at risk and this Government must simply confront the real problems and come out in the open and admit that there is a funding problem and seek a bipartisan approach to solving it. What this Government or any other government cannot afford to do is to play politics with people's health.
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