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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1133 ..

Motion (by Mr Berry) agreed to, with the concurrence of an absolute majority:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would enable the Assembly to consider and vote on notice No. 4, Assembly business, relating to a proposed select committee on a new private hospital.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, as I was just saying, we made it very clear right from the beginning that a new private hospital could not rely on government business or government sponsorship in any way. The Health Care of Australia proposal was selected as the most viable for the ACT, after an extensive and scrupulous assessment process which included extensive financial analysis and which was overseen by an independent probity auditor.

Mr Speaker, I would like to briefly enumerate the benefits of a private hospital to the ACT. In these flat economic times, we are talking about - and wait for this, Mr Speaker - 230 people being employed over the construction phase of the hospital from June this year, in just a couple of months' time, to September 1998, when the hospital will be completed. This comprises 30 people in the early works over four months, 80 people as the building goes up over the next five months, and 120 over the seven months as the hospital is fitted out and completed. Mr Speaker, 230 jobs is not something that I would have thought anybody in this Territory, even Mr Berry, would question even for a moment. When the hospital is operating, from September 1998, up to 200 people will be employed directly or through contracts generated by the hospital. So there is another 200, Mr Speaker. I think that is a very important thing to keep in mind here.

Mr Speaker, I opened my comments by saying that I was flabbergasted by Mr Berry's belated attempt to second-guess the role of a private hospital. However, I must say that he has suggested a series of very sensible questions - questions which we obviously have answered in our research and development of the private hospital. They do not need to be answered again, Mr Speaker. We certainly do not need to use the scarce resources of this Government and this Assembly to do what amounts to rediscovering the wheel. I am very happy, Mr Speaker, to run through six of the substantive issues that he has raised and the answers to those questions.

First, on the current provision of public and private beds in the ACT and the surrounding region: In the ACT we have 784 public hospital beds and 240 private beds. On a comparative basis with other metropolitan areas in 1993-94, the ACT's public hospital bed provision of 2.6 beds per 1,000 population is no different from the national metropolitan average, according to the "First National Report on Health Sector Performance Indicators, February 1996". In comparison, we have 0.7 private beds per 1,000 population; the national level is 1.2.

Mr Berry: So, we are better off than they are.

MRS CARNELL: No; we are worse off. We have fewer of them. However, it is well recognised that Australia is oversupplied with hospital beds, and we should aim - - -

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