Page 520 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 1993
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MR BERRY: I was just given a little note. It says, "Herring of the private hospitals has refused the offer", so it is a bit superfluous, really, because Herring of the private hospitals has refused the offer. That probably tells you where the private hospitals are coming from on this issue. But the detail of - - -
Mrs Carnell: Tell us how you are going to do it, though. It is your Prime Minister's policy.
MR BERRY: Madam Speaker, it would be nice to be able to answer these questions without interjection. She will have her supplementary question. The Prime Minister has made the promise and he will deliver it. Like all arrangements in relation to hospital funding, the details will have to be worked out, but I suspect that any funding that goes to private hospitals will have to go on a basis that they provide services up to the standards which are provided in public hospitals and, indeed, at a rate which is acceptable to the Government that is buying them. I do not think Mr Keating would make an offer like that to hospitals who are prepared to overcharge. He would be making an offer on the basis that we would get sensible pricing for those services in areas where there was a need for private hospitals to provide those services. The final detail, of course - - -
Mr Humphries: Are we in an area like that?
MR BERRY: It depends on the level of private funding for private hospitals which is provided in the ACT, and the detail of that would have to be worked out. I am sure that it would be as a result of complex negotiations, but you can rest assured, Mr Humphries, that Labor in the ACT will continue to provide a strong public hospital system here. It will not be weakened, as the Liberals have suggested with what is proposed by Dr Hewson. Dr Hewson is not going to get elected, so we are not going to have to worry about that. What Mr Keating has promised will be, of course, incorporated in our direction at developing better and stronger public hospital services in the ACT in the interests of the people of the Territory.
MRS CARNELL: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I will ask the question slightly differently - more simply. Will the Minister tell the people of Canberra how, when the ACT has only 0.5 of a private hospital bed per thousand population, which is less than a quarter of the number of private hospital beds that are present in any other State in Australia, he is going to provide private hospital beds or how they are going to be provided under Mr Keating's own policy? I think he is providing $25m to overcome the waiting list that he now accepts happens. In the ACT, if Mr Keating happens to get into power, how is the Minister going to deliver?
MR BERRY: It seems that the private hospitals in the Territory do not want to provide too many beds; the market is just not there for them. They are just not interested. It is market driven and, if they have not provided more beds than they need, I do not know how anybody is going to be able to buy any bed space off them.
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