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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4430 ..

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Hospital Waiting Lists

MR BERRY: I direct a question to the Chief Minister. I refer to a colour supplement that appeared in the latest issue of the Canberra Chronicle.

Mr Whitecross: Gary thinks the question is to him.

MR BERRY: No; it is not to you, Mr Humphries. You will get your turn later. I refer to a chart in the very expensive colour supplement which boasts - you guessed it - about waiting lists; but it boasts only up to June this year. Is the reason the chart stops at June that since June waiting lists have been going up at the Canberra Hospital? Is that the reason, Chief Minister, why you boast about waiting list figures only up to June? Will you tell us about the waiting list increases since June and why you did not include that in the colour supplement?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I wonder whether Mr Berry could give me a copy of the supplement; I have not seen it. But I can tell him about waiting lists. I can very happily tell him about waiting lists.

Mr Berry: Can you tell us whether they have gone up in the last two or three months?

MRS CARNELL: They have not; that is the reality.

Mr Berry: They have, at Canberra Hospital.

MRS CARNELL: At the end of September 1997, across the entire ACT public hospital system - - -

Mr Berry: No; I am talking about Canberra Hospital.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MRS CARNELL: There were 3,400 people listed as waiting for elective surgery. There were 166 or 4.7 per cent fewer people waiting for elective surgery than was the case 12 months ago. There were 1,169, or 25.6 per cent, fewer names on the waiting list than when we came to government. When you compare that to Mr Berry's extraordinary performance when he was Health Minister, when he allowed waiting lists to more than double, I am amazed that he could even ask the question. When we came to government, we promised to reduce waiting lists by 20 per cent. We have now reduced, at the end of September - - -

Mr Berry: You did not promise to increase costs by $8m.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The question was about waiting lists.

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