Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2925 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

to an increase in costs. Will the Chief Minister recognise that there is an inherent conflict of interest for salaried medical officers to operate a competing private practice in the same field? What will the Chief Minister do to address these serious issues relating to this identified by the audit?

MRS CARNELL: I thank Mr Wood for what is, I think, a very good question. Mr Speaker, there are two parts of it. One is with regard to the medical imaging department. Mr Wood would be aware that the Auditor-General raises issues such as the Booz Allen report with regard to the medical imaging area, an internal audit in 1995, and a fraud investigation by the Chief Minister's Department in 1996. The fraud prevention unit investigation was with regard to certain treatment of a dog. Those in this Assembly remember that issue and there was significant work done to implement appropriate restitution in that situation. Information that became available with regard to the implementation phase of the Booz Allen and Hamilton review indicates that significant work was done within the imaging department to put in place most of the recommendations from that particular area.

Mr Speaker, I fully accept the point made that we have to make sure, with regard to private practice, that private practice does not impact directly on public facilities or public services provided by salaried medical officers, but rights to private practice have existed in the ACT since 1987. There is something called the old system and the new system that the Auditor-General speaks about. The old system, Mr Speaker, which existed when those opposite were in government, has been a significant problem, there is no doubt. The old system allowed salaried practitioners to have two half-days a week when they could go out into their private practice as long as they made up the time. There is some issue now about ensuring that that time is being made up. Preliminary investigations by the hospital have indicated, at least in the circumstances looked at at the moment, that that has been done, Mr Speaker; but obviously that will be part of the whole approach we are taking at the moment of going through every salaried specialist's profile to determine that they are doing the right thing by the contracts that they have signed or by the basis of their employment. Mr Wood, to answer your question as to whether I will immediately stop private practice rights - - -

Mr Wood: What will you do? I am sorry to interject.

MRS CARNELL: Private practice rights are written into the contracts of service for those particular salaried specialists, so they have that right, under either old systems or new systems, as part of their salary packages. I think one of the things that none of us would like to see happen in the ACT - certainly, I would not like to see it happen - is for all our good specialists, our people who are right at the top of their professions, to leave simply because the packages that we were offering them were significantly worse than in other places.

Mr Wood might not be aware that private practice rights for salaried specialists are available in virtually all teaching hospitals around Australia. Where private practice rights are not available an extra amount of money is paid or a supplementation is given instead; but the vast percentage of hospitals offer private practice rights. For us to move away from that would need to be weighed against the need - I think the bottom line need - to have the very best specialists. But the one thing that we will not accept is specialists

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .