Page 4544 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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He is stuck with an undertaking that we will have a hospice on Acton Peninsula at least six kilometres away from the nearest hospital. He has ignored the advice of prominent Canberrans, health and planning professionals, women's and aged groups, and even working parties set up to inquire into the provision of a hospice. There are more arguments against siting a hospice on Acton Peninsula than you can poke a stick at.
Mr Connolly: Tell us what they are without reading the next page.
MRS CARNELL: I have on quite a lot of occasions, Mr Connolly. It would cost up to 25 per cent more in recurrent terms to operate a hospice on Acton Peninsula. Those are figures that Mr Berry has never suggested are wrong. Instead, Mr Berry has stuck doggedly to his preferred site, Acton Peninsula. This is not courage; this is simply bloody-mindedness. This situation is totally unacceptable.
I am disappointed that Mr Moore is not in the house right now. When we were in Adelaide recently with the Euthanasia Committee we spoke to a number of people who run hospices, and what did they say? What did they suggest about the siting of a hospice? They suggested that it would be irresponsible and unsustainable to site a hospice not adjacent - - -
Mr Berry: Were they doctors?
MRS CARNELL: No, the people who actually run hospices, administrators.
Ms Follett: Were they patients?
MRS CARNELL: Interestingly, the patients as well were very positive about having a hospice associated with a hospital where they can have access to the services that they need without having to get into an ambulance. It was interesting to talk to the nursing staff as well. The nursing staff suggested that they too would find it very difficult to be involved in a hospice that was not associated with a hospital. Mr Berry, right this minute, could set up an interim hospice facility in a vacant ward at Calvary Hospital. That is not perfect in the longer term, but it exists right now. Not even any refurbishment is required.
Mr Berry: The answer is no.
MRS CARNELL: Why no, Mr Berry? Because you are just bloody-minded about this decision. You do not care. You do not care that it is going to cost us money that we cannot afford, that it will not be in the best interests of the patients, or for that matter - - -
Mr Lamont: Cost us money we cannot afford? You and your group cost us $80m for teaching that you just knocked over. It was $1.5m, but it would have been $80m over a reasonable period.
MRS CARNELL: We are talking about a situation here where Mr Berry wants to build a facility that will cost us 25 per cent more than the same facility built adjacent to a public hospital. That simply has to be a stupid approach. We then could look at the other health facilities that have been planned for Acton Peninsula. Look at the convalescent care unit. We found out the other day in the Government response to the Social Policy Committee's report that the
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