Page 3196 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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MR BERRY: Do you want the answer? I did not tell a joke. What are you laughing for? The Medicare agreement provides details on how across-border charging will apply. We have to examine that issue in terms of the provision of cardio-thoracic services interstate and make sure that, when we develop our own services, they are developed against that background.
At the same time, members would know that Labor promised in its election commitment to the people of Canberra that we would continue the planning process for the establishment of a cardio-thoracic unit, and we intend to do that. Also, in a move that nobody else has been courageous enough to take, this Government announced the establishment of a clinical medical school. I understand that we are very close to announcing who the sub-dean will be in relation to that.
Mrs Carnell: There is no money in the budget for that either.
MR BERRY: Maybe if you had gone back to the original announcement you would have seen that there was no cost involved in that. Sensibly, the establishment of the cardio-thoracic unit, because it is a high-tech service, ought to be planned in the context of the clinical medical school. We still have the commitment that we promised the people of the ACT to plan very carefully the provision of those services, and that process will continue.
We will in due course consider the establishment starting date for the unit against the background of all those issues I have raised with you, and in particular the requirement to consider how we pay for the provision of cardio-thoracic services in the context of the Medicare agreement. We have to consider that issue. We have to make sure that we get the best value for money; but, most importantly, we have to make sure that we have a first-class service on the day we start, and we will have.
MRS CARNELL: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I understand that a position for a cardiac surgeon has been advertised internationally. Will this position be filled? If there is no money available, when are you going to tell the successful recipient of this job that they will not be paid?
MR BERRY: You have to, first of all, get an applicant, do you not? We provided money in last year's budget to get on with the process of - - -
Mrs Carnell: You have spent that, just about.
MR BERRY: No, we have not spent all of it.
Mrs Carnell: I did not say that you had spent all of it - just about all of it.
MR BERRY: And not just about all of it either. There are thousands of dollars left. We will continue with the planning process to ensure that, when we get to the point where we first provide one of those services, it will be a first-class service, not something that is - - -
Mrs Carnell: Not something like every other principal hospital in this country provides.
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