Page 2489 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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Detail Stage
Clauses 1 to 4, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
Clause 5
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.42): I foreshadowed that I would move an amendment; but Mr Berry has, I think, adequately handled the matter. I was concerned about this, as were many other people who work in the area. Unfortunately Mr Berry did not see his way clear to speak to the various people who were involved in this area prior to putting this Bill forward. His clarification makes me happy; so I am happy not to move the amendment circulated in my name.
Clause agreed to.
Clause 6 agreed to.
Clauses 7 and 8, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
Clause 9
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.44): I move:
Page 4, proposes new subparagraph 102A(1)(b)(iv), lines 16 and 17, omit the proposed new subparagraph.
As Mr Berry rightly said, this amendment will overcome a problem with the Bill. The Bill says that the quantity of methadone remaining in the ward or the methadone clinic, under the new definition, after each dose is administered will be measured and written down. In a methadone clinic that is seeing, say, 100 patients - it could be more - the nurses administering the methadone would have to remeasure all of the methadone left after every dose. Assume that they had five litres of methadone and gave 40 millilitres. They would have to measure all that was left after each one of the 100 doses. That obviously is inappropriate and it certainly is not efficient.
Mr Berry: Yes, but you do not count all the pills in a big box after you take 10 out.
MRS CARNELL: There is no legislation that says that, Mr Berry. This Bill says that immediately after each dose of methadone is administered the quantity of methadone remaining in the ward will be recorded. That means that you would have to measure the four litres or more of methadone left after every single dose. If you were doing 100-odd doses in a methadone clinic it would be prohibitive, and I suggest that we omit this subparagaph. It still means that people who are administering methadone in the clinics will have to measure the amount of methadone at the beginning and the end of a shift and make sure that everything balances. We are certainly not moving away from any form of accountability; we are just attempting to make the methadone clinics more efficient.
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