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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2135 ..
MR STANHOPE
(continuing):the Assembly what were those problems of communication? Secondly, can he say whether surgeons can now be confident that theatres will be available in appropriate time when emergency surgery is essential, or will the system break down again?
MR MOORE
: Mr Speaker, members can read the report and take their own interpretation from the report. There were three recommendations, as Mr Stanhope may recall from his reading of the executive summary I released last Friday, about improved practice to ensure that theatres were available. There was a theatre available, but it required improved communication and the recommendation of the death review committee was, as I recall, that doctors go and deal with the duty anaesthetist on a face-to-face basis. Yes, there are improved processes recommended there, and I am sure that surgeons at the hospital will take them seriously, as I understand they take all recommendations of the death review committee seriously.MR STANHOPE
: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. In addition to the problems of communication to which I just referred, the committee in its conclusion referred to problems related to the accessibility and availability of operating rooms. I do note that the minister, in his answer yesterday, ignored the problems relating to the accessibility and availability of operating rooms. Can the minister say that, as a result ofthe death review committee's report, those problems of accessibility and availability of operating rooms have been overcome?
MR MOORE
: Better than that, Mr Stanhope: long before the death review committee and long before Dr Jeans made his public allegations, we had already taken action. In fact, one of your Labor members, Mr Bill Wood, chaired a committee to which Dr Jeans made a submission on the very issue of waiting lists. One of their recommendations was that we have a review of theatre utilisation.We took that recommendation very seriously. We responded to the Assembly, saying that we would do something about it. But we will not do it in a half-hearted way; we will do it properly. We went to the college of surgeons and said, "Tell us who is the best person to do a review of this."
Mr Stanhope
: Dr Jeans.MR MOORE
: They did not say Dr Jeans. No, you are wrong, Mr Stanhope, they did not say Dr Jeans. They said that Dr King would be the best person to do this job because of his experience. They said that it would be really good if he were accompanied by Dr Kerridge, who is an anaesthetist, and it would be really good if the two of them were accompanied by a very competent nurse experienced in reforming theatre utilisation processes, Ms Jan Cohen.We agreed that we would bring that group to Canberra to make sure that we could improve our theatre utilisation and get much better theatre utilisation. We had actually acted long before Dr Jeans came out with these allegations, to ensure that we were doing something. Another allegation that Dr Jeans made was that I was sitting on my hands doing nothing when, in fact, we were putting into place the theatre utilisation review to ensure that we get the best possible patient care for people in Canberra. It is the number
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