Page 4074 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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I have said, and it is part of the budget process, that we will treat 50,500 people this year. Members opposite are also aware that waiting lists are not the measure you use for total hospital performance; they do not complete the full picture. They have to take into account other factors. We changed the way we measure waiting lists in the ACT when we discovered what both this Government and Mr Humphries's Government did. The way they have been counted for some time was an inaccurate presentation. It was this Government that clarified the issue. No more people were waiting as a result of that change in the way we booked elective patients. No more people ended up waiting as a result of those changes. We have made sure that there is an accurate presentation of the number of people who are waiting.
At the same time we have also demonstrated to the community, in a way that it has never been demonstrated before, the performance of our hospital system. The quarterly report that we have presented makes very clear how our hospital system is performing, and it is performing. The September quarterly report demonstrates that the hospital system is performing much better, and nobody can deny that.
Mr Humphries: Yes, they can.
MR BERRY: Well, the Liberals would. Returning to the issue of waiting lists, somebody interjected earlier that doctors get the blame. I am not the one who puts people on the waiting lists; neither do my hospital staff. The people who nominate people for the elective waiting lists are the surgeons and all the specialists out there, and it is their judgment that we have to rely on. We have heard reports of overservicing. We also know that there is a declining market out there in the private sector, and doctors are complaining about the reduction in profits as a result of that. We also know that there has been a very steep increase in the number of people who have been placed on waiting lists in the period leading up to the negotiations which are occurring on these VMO contracts. I have a feeling that there was some politics in that because of the contracts that were coming up.
Mrs Carnell: Not just sick people.
MR BERRY: No, I think there was some politics. There has been a very steep increase in the number of people going on the waiting lists, and it became very noticeable after March this year. Some time ago, Madam Speaker, there was also a quick rush to include people on the waiting lists when it was announced that more access would be provided to people with the longest waiting lists. All of a sudden there was a sudden interest in putting people on the waiting lists; if you have the longest waiting list you get more access to the hospital system. All of these factors have to be taken into account.
Mr De Domenico: The big picture.
MR BERRY: That is right; the big picture. It is something that was never developed in the reign of Mr Humphries. It is now becoming clearer to everybody that we are able to produce a picture that shows all aspects of performance within the hospital system. Coming back to waiting lists again, the quarterly report also shows that the percentage of people waiting three months or less is growing, so that is another area of performance where we are doing better - - -
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