Page 4693 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 7 December 1994
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Mrs Carnell was getting greatly excited over the fact that in October - shock, horror! - the system was collapsing because we had about 150 fewer surgical procedures, thus indicating, she said, a lack of confidence in me and all the rest of it.
Mrs Carnell: No; that is not right. We had 755 fewer for the first four months.
MR CONNOLLY: In October we had 756, compared to 905 for the same month last year - a reduction of 156 for the month of October. One factor that Mrs Carnell should be aware of is that from 4 to 24 October 1994 there was a major anaesthesiology conference held in Australia, and between 10 and 12 - - -
Mrs Carnell: That is what you said last month. What about the 16 per cent reduction for the first four months?
MR CONNOLLY: You make these wild assertions. If any television camera will look at it, you prattle on with your wild, unsourced allegations. Your shoot-from-the-lip approach has got you into a lot of trouble and has held you up to ridicule in this place. I come in here, usually a couple of days after you have had your prattle on, and try calmly and rationally to put the facts on the table to let the public decide.
So, we had a situation where, with a total complement of 26 anaesthetists, we had between 10 and 12 of them out of the system for about 10 days, which obviously had an impact on activity in October; but, by November, we were back on track. Madam Speaker, I stand by the statements I made in this place last week in relation to the quarterly report. I stand by the fact that those quarterly reports indicated that the waiting lists, which had been increasing, had plateaued in the September quarter. Mrs Carnell's "shock, horror!" statement, "But it had gone up in October", needs to be balanced against the statement, "But it had come down significantly in November". These monthly fluctuations are not what we look at. We look at quarterly data. On quarterly data, it shows that the hard work that we are putting into the hospital system is starting to show dividends.
Mrs Carnell, you carp, whinge, sensationalise - shock, horror! - while hiding from the people of Canberra that you plan to slash over $30m in health expenditure. It is in your counterbudget. It amounts to about 13 per cent of health expenditure, which is pretty much equivalent to what Jeff Kennett has done by slashing 15 per cent over three years from the Victorian health system. It just goes to show that your slip of the tongue the other week, when you said that you wanted to be just like Jeff Kennett, was probably very accurate, because, on health expenditure, that is exactly what you are doing. It is in your own document, your promise to the people of Canberra. You want to slash $30m from the health system and give away $30m of handouts to business. That is your health policy.
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