Page 3111 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 1994
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MR CONNOLLY: To some extent, the list can be endless. What I am seeking to have done in Canberra is to categorise that list as the Victorian Government has categorised it, because I think that will show up some quite significant trends. I was quite horrified recently to find that on the waiting list there is at least one case - there may well be more; I suspect that there are more - that predates self-government. I said, "This is appalling. What is going on here? Imagine what Mrs Carnell will say when she finds out about this". Mr Humphries was looking after the case for 18 months. Nothing happened. When we find out what that case is, it is a case of purely cosmetic surgery. So, it is something that may well be on a list for years and years because the waiting list is not a static waiting list. It is not a first come, first served, wait your turn waiting list; it is a list that always will be adjusted by the clinical need. A case that is more urgent will always bump off.
We had a significant jump in the waiting list because we had a period towards the end of last year when, due to an industrial dispute, no elective surgery was performed for quite a period. When you look at the fact that we have 3,600 admissions in an average month, you can see that, if you have a period of a month or so of industrial disruption, the figures can rapidly boost up and then start to trend down. I am satisfied that we are starting to trim those figures down. It will take some time to get them right down. I am wanting to get a categorisation breakdown, so that members of this community and this Assembly can be better informed about the waiting list.
One thing Ms Tehan did in Melbourne, to great publicity, was to produce the category A waiting list, which she said was zero. She got fabulous publicity. "That was a great achievement", said Ms Tehan in Melbourne. Our category waiting list is zero, too, because every person who needs emergency surgery - a road trauma - gets straight through. If you are desperately, critically ill, you get fixed. If you walk into the hospital with an elective condition in Canberra or Sydney or Melbourne or Adelaide or Perth, you will wait a little longer.
MR STEFANIAK: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. In the Canberra Times on 9 May this year, Mr Connolly, you said that you were determined to reopen 50 public beds that were closed at Woden Valley Hospital at Christmas. To quote you, "We will have them open by July 1". Minister, are they open? You only have to answer yes or no.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I did say that we wanted to get those beds reopened, and we provided the funding to have them reopened by 1 July. That was to get us to 600. We are currently at 584, I am told. We have still some beds to go. We are having some difficulties at the moment in attracting staff. That is, I understand, a condition that is not uncommon in Australia generally; but trying to attract staff in the middle of the year is a particular problem in Canberra. It is an issue that I am working on with senior health management, to see whether we can ensure that in future we have sufficient staff to ensure that these ups and downs can be dealt with.
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