Page 228 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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ADJOURNMENT
Motion (by Mr Berry) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Hospitals
MR KAINE (5.52): Madam Speaker, I hope that members will not mind if I delay them a little, but I feel a Ros Kelly coming on. I apparently made a statement earlier today that was incorrect, and I think that I should set the record straight before we go. This occurred, Madam Speaker, during the debate when Mr Berry was outlining his theory of the highly efficient hospital - which is that the fewer beds you have, the more efficient it becomes. I got carried away a bit and I made some comment to the effect that there were 3,000 people on the waiting list. I have since been informed that, in fact, I was quite wrong. The number is, in fact, 3,688. I just wanted to correct the record. It makes me feel good to be able to do that. It makes me feel particularly good, because I am not one of the 3,688 people
on the waiting list.
I was cogitating on the Berry theory that a reducing number of beds makes a hospital more efficient and setting that off against the fact that our waiting list is increasing. I produced the model of the Berry efficient hospital system. I will have this blown up and distributed so that people can see it. It shows that, on the model of the reducing bed concept of hospitals, some time in 1999 we will have zero beds in our public hospital system; but at the time that we hit that optimal efficiency point the waiting list will have increased to around 21,000. I cannot state with precision on which day in 1999 this will occur, but it will be some time in 1999. Once we hit that optimal point where there are no beds and 21,000 people on the waiting list, the waiting list will then begin to increase exponentially. By some day in 1999, one in 15 of the ACT population will be on the waiting list to get into our hospital system which has no beds in it.
I thought that this was a highly illuminating model. I would like to table it for incorporation in the Hansard, but I do not think I will go that far. I might just put out a media release. But I will certainly make sure that the Minister has a copy of this model of the Berry efficient hospital system. He can put it on the wall and then he will know that some time in 1999 we will reach this optimal position.
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