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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (22 May) . . Page.. 1610 ..

MS McRAE: My question is to the Chief Minister in her capacity as Minister for Health. My question is this: Is it true that, during the unprecedented period of emergency bypass in our public hospital system, patients requiring attention in the intensive care unit at our major and only trauma hospital were removed from that intensive care unit and transferred to Calvary Hospital?

MRS CARNELL: Emergency bypass is not unprecedented at Woden Valley Hospital at all - - -

Mr Humphries: That is right. Far from it.

MRS CARNELL: Far from it. It is the sort of thing that - - -

Ms McRae: I did not ask about that.

MRS CARNELL: You said that it was unprecedented. It certainly was not unprecedented. What emergency bypass actually means is that the hospital does not accept patients from interstate unless they need emergency stabilisation. Comments that were made by Mr Berry and others that somehow indicated to the community that emergency bypass meant that emergency patients would not be accepted at Woden Valley Hospital were aimed at scaring the community and undermining confidence in Woden Valley Hospital. The reality is that emergency bypass does not mean in any way that emergency patients will not be accepted. Of course they are accepted.

When emergency bypass is on, the Ambulance Service is advised that all general emergencies should be diverted to Calvary Hospital. Woden Valley Hospital still accepts major trauma patients and those patients requiring specialist services that can be provided only at Woden Valley Hospital. If Calvary Hospital is also full, then patients are taken at Woden. Mr Berry referred to two cardiac patients yesterday. As I understand it, one of those patients, as I said yesterday, was admitted by 9.00 am and the other one was allowed to go home after tests. Certainly, under some circumstances patients will be transferred from Woden Valley Hospital to Calvary, but they will be sent to Calvary only if appropriate medical services exist there. Major trauma patients certainly will be maintained at Woden, and patients in specialist areas that only Woden looks after will be maintained at Woden.

MS McRAE: I ask a supplementary question. My question still is: In that period of 24 hours, were patients removed from the intensive care unit and transferred to Calvary Hospital? Were patients actually removed?

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