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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 253 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

What are we doing about it, and how and when? Well, Mr Rayment met with the senior executives of the hospital on Wednesday and again all of Saturday to try to work out what they can do about this. This is the first time, certainly since I have been a Minister, that those people have got together to work out how to deal with the budget problem. At the senior management level they have recognised that there is a problem in budgetary terms and they are trying to work out how to deal with it. One of the methods they will be dealing with is ensuring that budget responsibility is devolved down to managers at the lowest possible level. This has not happened in that hospital and there has been a reluctance to do it in the hospital. I wrote a number of times to Mr Johnston and asked him to do it and it is now beginning to occur.

Mr Stanhope asked me about waiting lists. I did give you a very good and very thorough answer about waiting lists this morning, Mr Stanhope. I particularly explained about the $16.5m, but I will do it again. You got the explanation when you asked a question on notice about the expenditure of that money. I could adopt the short-term, narrow-sighted, short-sighted approach and go and purchase a fair bit of elective surgery now if I could. What I neglected to mention this morning is that I have been willing to go not just to the Canberra Hospital and the Calvary Hospital to deal with the waiting list. We have approached the private hospitals also. Lidia Perin Memorial Hospital is already doing some. I approached all the other private hospitals, saying, "Will you assist us in doing some of our waiting list because what we want is the best outcome for patients?".

Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not care who does the surgery, provided we can get it done within budget and at a reasonable price. We are pursuing those sorts of approaches but we are also pursuing broader strategies in terms of the waiting list. I will be very keen, because these things are particularly difficult, Mr Deputy Speaker, to work with your committee, the Health and Community Care Committee, when it examines waiting lists to make sure that we can work in a positive way on those waiting lists.

Mr Stanhope suggested that the only comment I have ever made is to privatise the hospital. Nothing could be further from the truth. In response to a question from Mr Corbell at the Estimates Committee, I made it very clear that I would not dance to his tune. I have never given an opinion as to whether I would be prepared to privatise the management of the hospital or not. I have never given an opinion and I refuse to give an opinion because I am not going to dance to his tune on it, which is very different from saying I am going to privatise. I will add this little bit for your edification, Mr Deputy Speaker: I am highly unlikely to do it and it is having no consideration whatsoever.

Mr Berry: Why don't you just rule it out?

MR MOORE: What I am doing, Mr Deputy Speaker, is working with the staff of that hospital, to make sure that we can deal with the issues in front of us. Mr Berry says, "Why don't you just rule it out?". Mr Deputy Speaker, if I were to face my responsibilities as Minister and this blow-out was not $10m but was $60m or $70m, I would have to say I would have to put it on the agenda. It is not, and I do not have to put it on the agenda.

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