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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1806 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Berry; it is simply a matter of sitting down with New South Wales and working out a position that is equitable to all concerned. The amount that was budgeted for in the ACT budget, along the lines that those opposite took - and that was just national averages - was just over $21m. As it turns out, we have managed to convince New South Wales to pay us just over $24m.

MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Does the Chief Minister seriously believe that, following the Federal Liberals' cut to State funding, Mr Carr would hand over the $16m which you are talking about and which is marvellously close to the $14.2m which you have lost in Health? Do you think he would do that just to supplement your budget flop? Do you also think he would hand over $16m to somebody who has just completed a year in which 2,000 patients in our hospital system have not had the operations that they were supposed to have?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry brought up another issue in his supplementary question that I feel absolutely compelled to answer. He suggested that somehow this Government had seen a 2,000-patient fall in the number of operations that had been done over the last 12 months. After I have finished answering this supplementary question, Mr Berry is going to wish that he had never, ever, had the health portfolio. Quite seriously, I am about to lift the lid on a scandal that he created and one that he will have to live with for the rest of his time as an MLA.

Several weeks ago Mr Berry issued a media release headed "Operations fall by 2,000 at Woden Valley Hospital under Carnell". In order to explain this matter properly, Mr Speaker, I am going to table in the Assembly Mr Berry's press release. Let me quote from the first paragraph of this release:

In her first year as Health Minister Mrs Carnell failed to match last year's performance with over two thousand less operations being carried out at Woden Valley Hospital, Deputy Labor Leader and Labor Health spokesperson Wayne Berry said today.

Put simply, Mr Berry claimed that Woden Valley Hospital had carried out 2,095 fewer operations between March 1995 and February 1996, compared with the corresponding period 12 months earlier. Mr Berry demanded to know why, if there were 2,000 fewer operations, waiting lists had decreased, and whether Calvary Hospital would have to carry out 2,600 additional operations to equal last year's total. He has hounded journalists just about every day since. Today, Mr Berry, you are going to get the answer to that question. Most disturbingly, I suspect that you already know the answer to that question.

Through its monthly information bulletins, Woden Valley Hospital has, in fact, reported a decline of 2,091 procedures from March 1995 to February 1996, compared with the same period 12 months earlier. At first look, it looks like Mr Berry was right. So I sought an explanation from the Department of Health and Community Care about those figures; and guess what I found out? For every month from November 1993 to December 1994, that is, 13 months under the Labor Government, the number of day theatre procedures was double-counted under the heading "Main Theatre Procedures".

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