Page 3671 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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That is the issue. Nursing home beds are included in that. We accept that there have been differing calculations of nursing home beds from time to time. In the middle of 1991 they were counted. Subsequent to that - the Minister did not mention this - they were not counted; they were excluded from the count after that point. Then we get to a stage where, suddenly, they are counted again. The point is that, that jump of 50-odd beds being made at a time when the Government had undertaken to provide additional beds in our hospital system, it seems to me to be a fair inference that those 50 beds are being added to the figures in order to meet the target that the Minister had promised. He said, "I will provide additional beds". Magically, the figures are jiggled and additional beds appear in the system.
That, Madam Speaker, might suit Medicare purposes; it might be good enough for Carmen Lawrence and Mr Baker, but it is not good enough for this house, which has clearly paid attention time and again to the question of how many beds are in our public hospital system. Mr Berry paid a lot of attention to it when he was in opposition as well. It has been paid attention to by this house time and again. We deserve accurate, complete and consistent answers at all stages during the debate on these matters. The fact of the matter is, Madam Speaker, that we did not get them. We did not get consistency. When Mr Connolly said that bed numbers would increase, he did not tell the Assembly that this would occur simply by reclassifying the existing available facilities in our hospital system. (Extension of time granted) Mr Connolly did not say to the house, "I have achieved this goal by reclassifying what was already there. We now have more beds because there has been some change in the Medicare agreement. It has changed the status of a dialysis chair to a bed; it has changed a neonatal cot to a bed; it has changed a nursing home bed, which is not available to the public, to a bed".
Mr Connolly: You counted them as beds, which I proved. You are back to it, are you not?
MR HUMPHRIES: No; do not get excited, Mr Connolly. What I am saying is that, if you want to count them again, that is fine; but do not use it as a basis for suddenly saying - - -
Mr Connolly: But you counted them, Gary.
MR HUMPHRIES: Let me finish. I accept that; I have noted that. Yes, I agree.
Mr Connolly: But you just criticised me for counting them.
MR HUMPHRIES: No; I have criticised you for not counting them at one point and then counting them at the other, and not telling us that you changed the classification system. You said that one day we had X number of beds. The next day we look, we have 50 more beds. You did not come back and say, "That is because we have re-counted the beds we had before and we have reclassified beds". You had a duty to come back to this place and say, "We have reclassified those beds".
Debate interrupted.
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