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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 476 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I want to provide more information about a question asked yesterday. Mr Whitecross asked about the number of ambulance crews operating on shifts. I want to table a breakdown of those shifts showing the number of operational crews operating during each shift. As members will see, during the month of February a fifth ambulance crew operated on all day shifts, with five day shifts having an extra crew member available.

In light of questions asked by Mr Whitecross, I sought a review of the rosters of all night shifts during the month of February. It was a manual review rather than the computer-based one from which the figures were originally drawn. The figures I had available to me yesterday concerning crew deployments were based on the number of crews that started the shift on duty. In some cases, a crew did not necessarily complete a shift, because a crew was held back from the previous shift. A check of the figures against the rosters showed that it is necessary to revise the figures I produced in the Assembly yesterday. I apologise for the slight inaccuracy in what I tabled.

Mr Whitecross asked about particular dates. In relation to the dates in February, I advise that on the 7th, the 9th, the 10th and the 20th there were 41/2 crews available and that on the 19th there were, in fact, five crews available, contrary to what Mr Whitecross suggested.

Mr Whitecross: I asked.

MR HUMPHRIES: The question, I would suggest, was a suggestion rather than just a question. Mr Speaker, yes, the figures I gave were inaccurate, although what I told the Assembly yesterday about the total availability of five ambulance crews throughout the month was still substantially true. I said to the Assembly that there were five crews available on 80 per cent of the shifts during the month of February to date, but the revised figures I now table indicate that there were five crews available on only 79 per cent of the available shifts during the month of February. I was out by one per cent, and I regret that very sincerely.

Mr Whitecross: Just under 50 per cent of the night shifts, though.

MR HUMPHRIES: The information list that I provided yesterday was accurate, except for that proviso.

Mr Whitecross: It was not 80 per cent of night shifts; it was 80 per cent of all shifts.

MR HUMPHRIES: Since Mr Whitecross still presses that point, let me make a couple of points. When I say that there were five crews available, that is not necessarily strictly accurate. On some occasions when we have recorded five crews, in fact there were more than five crews.

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