Page 931 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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What happens to elderly people who need health care in this Territory? They go on waiting lists. They go on waiting lists that are approaching 4,000. It is regularly our elderly who are suffering most, because it is regularly those people who are on elective surgery lists. Elective surgery can make the difference between whether you can live on your own and whether you cannot; but unfortunately, if you cannot live in your own home, there is nowhere to go. That is the reality for the ageing in Canberra.
What happens if you are lucky enough to actually get a hospital bed? You are discharged very quickly. Mr Berry has often said, "Is it not wonderful? We are discharging patients quicker". It is wonderful. But what happens when they go home? Where is the respite care? There is not any. Where are the HACC services to help them stay at home after they have been discharged from hospital substantially quicker than they have in the past? There simply are not any. Again, those are comments not from me but from the Council on the Ageing. They are saying that there just must be services. What services? Of course, the convalescent unit that has been promised by every government that has looked after this Territory since self-government. What do we have? Nothing.
Mr Berry tells us that the convalescent unit is no longer on the agenda - not in the foreseeable future, anyway. So how can you discharge people from hospital when there is nowhere for them to go and there are no services at home? It is simply impossible. That is what we are doing to our elderly people, to our ageing people, in the ACT. We must be willing to have more than just a plan, more than just an interdepartmental committee. I was fascinated by Ms Follett's comments on her plan. She says, "We will have a three-year draft" - and I stress the word "draft" - "forward plan by October this year". She gives absolutely no timeframe for the real plan. By the time we have a plan it will all be too late. It will certainly be after the next election. Then, of course, she will not have to do anything, because she will not be in government to do it - which will be a very good thing for the ageing in Canberra. This statement is just a sham. I think the Chief Minister should have said nothing today. It would have served her better.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON NOTICE
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, I would like to respond now to the question that Mr Cornwell put to me earlier. First of all, Mr Cornwell, I would like to point out that the provisions of standing order 118A actually refer to a Minister. I do not fit that category. The standing order as it currently stands does not include me. That is just a point of clarification. However, we do endeavour to give these answers on time.
I apologise for an unintended slur on my secretariat staff. I never did actually receive a question, but I was informed that a question was in the pipeline. I recall that there was a question in the pipeline, and obviously it was the one that you were referring to, Mr Cornwell, relating to Christmas cards. I am very pleased to say that the answer is here, and I have authorised it for release to you. That is that problem solved.
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