Page 3664 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 20 October 1993
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Hennessy House
MR CORNWELL: Madam Speaker, my question is addressed to the Minister for Health. In this Mental Health Week I ask you, Minister, whether you are aware that the waiting period to obtain a bed at Hennessy House has blown out to as much as six months and this is causing severe pressure on other mental health services, including psychiatric beds at Woden Valley Hospital? I ask: What are you doing to rectify this problem?
MR BERRY: This is the mob opposite that complains when you spend more money on the health system and we can - - -
Mr Humphries: When?
MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell, of course, complained when the Government put more money into our hospital system. If we had listened to Mrs Carnell then and we had not put those extra funds into the hospital system, there would have been 2,000 or so fewer people treated in our hospital system as a result of her bleating. Mr Cornwell, on the other hand, is now arguing the "spend more" case as well. In terms of the waiting lists for Hennessy House, I expect that people who need treatment immediately, emergency treatment, get it, and of course - - -
Mr Humphries: You are wrong, Minister. They do not get it.
Mr Cornwell: The waiting list has blown out to six months.
Mr Humphries: You do not know what you are talking about.
MR BERRY: I am saying to you that we do what we can with the resources that are available in our health system. You people complain that we spend too much. What we are doing is providing the levels of services that are required within the resources that we have available.
MR CORNWELL: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I will help the Minister. In view of the six-month waiting list at Hennessy House, why has the Minister not opened the currently unopened second house on the Hennessy House site?
MR BERRY: Certainly, I will inquire into that matter. I do not have the details at my fingertips, but I will certainly inquire into the matter and report back.
Youth Alcohol Strategy
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question is also directed to the Minister for Health, Mr Berry. On page 120 of the Government's Youth Budget Statement 1993-94 it is stated:
A Youth Alcohol Strategy is being coordinated by the Alcohol and Drug Service, for which a Background Paper was released in 1992.
My question of the Minister is: Given that the Select Committee on Drugs presented its report Alcohol and Youth: a Rite of Passage? earlier this year, and the Government is yet to respond to the report, how does the Government intend to go about addressing the development of its youth alcohol strategy, and when might the issue be considered by the Assembly?
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