Page 4115 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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Clearly, the Assembly would not be debating this matter if the VMOs were not important to the running of the public health system. The fact is that they are important and they have a very significant role to play. All the Government is asking is that the VMOs accept some of the responsibility that must accompany their important role in the system and look beyond their immediate and personal interests to those of the community as a whole. A first and important step on their part would be to join with the Government and the wishes of this Assembly, as expressed this morning without a dissenting view, and agree to have the matter arbitrated.
MR DE DOMENICO (4.55): Madam Speaker, let us face the facts. The facts are, unfortunately, that the doctors are in dispute with this Minister and this Government; the nurses are in dispute with this Minister and this Government; and the senior professional staff, like pharmacists, physios and dietitians are in dispute with this Government. I suggest, therefore, Madam Speaker, that all these people cannot be wrong.
Mr Berry: They are all at work.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry interjects, "They are all at work". That is not true, Mr Berry, because, as we have heard, the nurses, as from - - -
Mr Berry: Except for the doctors; I am sorry.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, no; the nurses as from tomorrow, from time to time, also will not be at work. Madam Speaker, Mr Berry talked about the wonderful meeting he had with Industrial Relations Ministers in Canberra recently and how everybody has rights to do all sorts of things. I think doctors, nurses and everybody else have rights as well.
Let us have a look at the situation in ACT Health. I am casting no aspersions whatsoever on the very dedicated staff who are trying their best in very hard circumstances. The fault lies, quite rightly, fairly and squarely with the Minister; nobody else but the Minister. There is no doubt, as Mrs Carnell and Mr Humphries have said, that morale in ACT Health, right at this minute, and morale in the ACT if you happen to be sick, are at zero level. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. Why is morale at zero level? Let us face the facts. The waiting list is increasing by 100 per month. That is a fact. Hospital occupancy rates are between 90 and 100 per cent - higher than in any other public hospital system in the country. That is a fact.
We have a lower number of public hospital beds than anywhere else in the country. That is a fact. That was confirmed by the Macklin report as well. Also, as Mrs Carnell said, there is an expectation of 3.3 beds per thousand by the year 2000. The very best that we are looking at is 2.7 per thousand, which is below the national average, once again. According to KPMG, or Mr Berry's figures - let us take Mr Berry's figures that are a little bit lower - our hospital operating costs in the ACT are 30 per cent higher than anywhere else in the country. Let us have a look at some more of Mr Berry's figures, because I do not want to misinterpret anything. Mr Berry's own figures, released in the report today, show that he is $3.073m over budget in the first quarter of this year. We compare it, quite rightly, with the same period as last year when it was $3.162m.
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