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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (22 June) . . Page.. 1644 ..
(2) It is not possible to provide even a reasonably accurate response to this question. Payments to and from NSW are predicated on a casemix based price which does not separately identify and pay for critical care hours. Rather, the cost weights for particular diagnosis related groups (DRG's) include weightings that take into account the critical care component.
(3) It is not possible to argue that NSW residents as opposed to ACT residents are the
cause of any cost overruns in The Canberra Hospital because the total hours of critical care used in the hospital are paid for on a per diem basis regardless of residential status, as I explained in my response to question one.
Members should however be aware of the following:
� The Australian Health Care Agreement does not allow the ACT to discriminate against the citizens of other states requiring care in its hospitals.
� The costs of running our public hospitals are higher than any other State/Territory and we have been for some time attempting to find out why this is so.
� The current price paid by NSW was established through arbitration and the ACT is continuing negotiations with NSW for a more favourable funding arrangement.
� ACT residents have historically tended to use more intensive services in the Sydney metropolitan hospitals than NSW residents use in the ACT.
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