Page 4449 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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The final issue that I wish to comment on is recommendation 26, which was:
Full cooperation and consultation be sought with various ethnic groups in the provision of future aged facilities.
I note that the Government agrees to this recommendation and I would be interested to hear more about how it believes that it can facilitate discussion with ethnic groups in the provision of future aged care facilities. In summary, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, while I welcome the Government response to this very important report by the Social Policy Committee, I believe that in very many instances it did not go far enough in addressing the very real issues confronting aged people in the ACT.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (11.42): I fully agree with the comments made by both Mr Cornwell and Ms Szuty; so I will not run through the various recommendations one by one. The issue I want to bring up, though, is how important it is that the Government set a timeframe for the establishment of the convalescent care unit and also for the increase in respite care and the crisis care facility in North Canberra. Mr Berry, on many occasions, has told us in the Assembly that one of his greatest methods of cutting costs in Health is to reduce the average length of stay at Woden Valley Hospital. If the average length of stay continues to decrease as quickly as it is now, the pressing need for long-stay convalescent care in Canberra becomes substantially more - - -
Mr Berry: That is rubbish. You assume that they are put out of hospital before they are ready to go.
MRS CARNELL: We can see quite categorically the need for a convalescent care unit. In fact, Mr Berry, when Health Minister in 1989-90, had a convalescent care facility as, I think, a first priority on his list of things that he believed he needed to do.
Mr Berry: No; I think you are wrong.
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Westende): Order, please!
MRS CARNELL: Thank you. I am not wrong. It was priority one on Mr Berry's list of priorities when he first was Health Minister. It is unfortunate that it now is a recommendation that is only noted. As we move away from long-term care in our critical care hospitals, we have to set up facilities that can cope with that. When the Social Policy Committee went to have a look at crisis care at Burrangiri they told us that they were finding more and more requests for beds due to the fact that people were being discharged earlier. That was exactly what they said.
Mr Berry: How many more?
MRS CARNELL: Enough, because they are full. They did not have enough beds. That is the reason why the committee recommended another facility in North Canberra. They said categorically that what we needed was somewhere to send patients who were not sick enough for crisis care in hospitals but not well enough to look after themselves at home.
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