Page 260 - Week 01 - Thursday, 24 February 1994
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Today I have announced a review of health financial management and health generally to seek to ensure that we are doing everything we can to speed up the process of implementing efficiencies within our hospital system. That is something that the ACT people will welcome because they know that we have to be more efficient, like every health system in Australia, indeed, across the world. As we proceed down the path of increased efficiency and better services to the community, people will be in hospital for much longer. As the acting chief executive - - -
Mr De Domenico: Much longer? You said shorter.
MR BERRY: Much shorter, I should say. The acting chief executive said a little while ago that he does not know of anybody who craves to stay in hospital for any longer than they have to. That is why average lengths of stay are falling. So, too, will the number of beds per head of population. You have to get used to it.
MRS CARNELL: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Minister, this means that you have spent over $100m increasing the number of beds at Woden Valley Hospital from 405 to 482. That is $100m to produce 77 extra beds. Do you believe that that is value for money?
MR BERRY: I detect the sounds of another stupid press release coming. We have spent $100m, and that includes money for a lot of high-tech equipment which will result in less dependency on beds to produce services for the community. Mrs Carnell refuses to accept that and continues to count beds as the only measure of performance within the hospital system. She lives in the past, always. She lives in the past only for the purpose of issuing press releases and trying to grab a cheap headline. This is nonsense.
Mr Kaine: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I think the Minister is in danger of misleading the house and he may want to correct his statement before he goes much further. He said during that answer that after the closure of the Royal Canberra Hospital there was an expansion in beds at Calvary Hospital. That is not the case and he might like to correct himself.
Mr Berry: I withdraw that.
Freedom of Information
MS ELLIS: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General inform the Assembly of any moves to make freedom of information more accessible to the general public?
MR CONNOLLY: The Government has taken steps recently to make freedom of information more accessible to the public. The Opposition are not interested in that; they are interested in FOI only as a research tool for scandalmongering. We have taken a quite significant step in regulations, which were signed and were gazetted yesterday, which now provide that the public will have free access to FOI for personal information. That goes further than the Commonwealth's provision which allows free access to personal information if it is personal information relating to income support. The Commonwealth provides free access to income support personal information. We are prepared to provide free access
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