Page 4561 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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that the Liberal Party wholeheartedly supports. The Bill also establishes a Health Complaints Unit. It goes further than that. It sets up a Health Rights Advisory Council. This council will be responsible for providing advice to the Minister for Health and to the Commissioner for Health Complaints. Membership will be, I understand, from both users and providers, and will be, again, totally impartial and separate from the arms of government.
The Bill will set in place the development of a code of health rights and responsibilities for users and providers of both public and private health services - again an approach that will further equalise the rights between the consumer and the provider of health services. The Bill in essence sets up a mechanism whereby conciliation and investigation of complaints can be carried out. It also sets up mechanisms by which complaints can be referred to health registration boards, where they can be investigated further and appropriate action can be taken. Again that is something that we totally support. Formal conciliation of complaints will be with the agreement of the complainant and the provider, with the facilitation of a conciliator. The role of the conciliator will be to assist and facilitate the resolution of the complaint.
What we are seeing here, Mr Deputy Speaker, is a mechanism by which problems that exist in the health marketplace can be overcome before they actually get to any punitive style of action. The Health Complaints Unit does have the capacity to pass a complaint on to the police or, alternatively, to the ACT Ombudsman, if that is the appropriate course of action. It also has the capacity to deal with serious and complex complaints, and Part V of the Bill has in it many very appropriate mechanisms to handle that. As I said, Mr Deputy Speaker, this Bill goes a long way to actually creating equity, to equalise power and to make sure that the health sector in the ACT works better.
We do have some concerns about this Bill, though, Mr Deputy Speaker. The major one is that, as I understand it, the amount of money set aside to put this legislation in place is $200,000 per annum. I understand that this is supposed to be used to set up a unit with five employees - a commissioner, two senior staff, an inquiry officer and an office manager. I do not know how $200,000 can cover five salaries, let alone oncosts, rent and all of the other appropriate bits and pieces that will be required to make this unit actually work. It is really very important that it does work. The Bill does put in place mechanisms by which other people can be taken on as consultants. Other people who are needed can be taken on board. I think it is very important that a unit of this size and of this importance is adequately funded.
It is also important that a unit like this is not subject to duplication. In answers to questions that I have asked the Minister over the last couple of months he has indicated that existing complaints mechanisms will be kept in place. That means that the complaints mechanisms that exist in Civic, the hospital, some health centres and so on will continue to exist. If we are going to make a single, very obvious and very transparent complaints unit work, there has to be just one. The basis of any unit like that is to protect the public, not to protect the providers, the bureaucracy, the hospital or the health centres. We must be confident that there are no cover-ups and that whatever happens happens with a total flow of information. Otherwise the whole point of the exercise is lost. I am concerned that with duplication between various complaints mechanisms that may not happen. I am sure we all hope that it will not happen.
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