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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1132 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Before returning to this matter, I would like to reiterate some of the reasons why the Government has encouraged the development of a private hospital on the Canberra Hospital campus. Mr Speaker, the ACT has the lowest provision of private bed numbers of any State or Territory and at the same time has the highest rate of private health insurance coverage. Our public bed numbers are similar to levels in other metropolitan areas of Australia. It is our sort of level of public hospital beds that other States are aiming for. Because we have fewer private hospital beds, this places a higher level of demand on our public hospital beds. Not only that, but our private hospitals tend to cater for patients with less complex needs. This means that people with complex needs who have private health insurance have to travel interstate for care or attend the Canberra Hospital, often as public patients.

This has a range of major effects, Mr Speaker. Where people travel interstate, they further complicate an often stressful time for themselves and their families. Furthermore, their health care dollars are spent interstate and are lost to the ACT economy. Where people are admitted to the Canberra Hospital as private patients, we cannot recover our costs, and therefore we are subsiding private health funds, Mr Speaker. I am sure that Mr Berry would not like us to do that, or I would not have thought that he would. Where people are admitted as public patients, they lose the advantage of any amenity benefits their private insurance is intended to provide, and the money they pay for private insurance is effectively lost to them and represents an opportunity cost to the ACT economy. In fact, our privately insured health population now subsidises New South Wales.

Mr Speaker, I apologise for the health economics lesson here, but it is essential that we spell out the consequences for an already overloaded ACT public health system if we do not encourage private health care for people with complex needs whose needs are not currently met through the current private hospitals here in the ACT. After investigating solutions to this situation in other States, the option of a private hospital co-located with the Canberra Hospital was proposed; furthermore, we could rely on private health institutions to go through the thorough investigation required to assess whether such a venture would be successful.

Mr Speaker, this Government is reluctant to spend public money to do things that private industry is perfectly willing to do itself. We carefully set up an independently chaired committee to manage the selection process, with key government agencies represented, with expert advisers, and monitored by an independent probity auditor. It called for expressions of interest and received four proposals. The committee invited detailed proposals from three organisations, stressing that they should do their homework on demand, areas of specialty which they could provide and how the hospital could be set up; furthermore, that they could not rely on government business or sponsorship.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 30 minutes after the extended time for Assembly business commenced, the debate is interrupted.

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