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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2282 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

many Canberrans would have liked to have seen that money spent on more nurses and funding for our hospitals.

The budget papers reveal that in 1999-2000 the percentage of patients waiting longer than clinically desirable for treatment was 35 per cent, which exceeded targets set by the minister and his portfolio. The budget papers also state that actual expenditure on hospital services in the ACT is 34 per cent higher than the standardised expenditure levels. That is a debate that we still need to have, of course. It is interesting, though, that the budget papers go on to say that it is the department's intention to lower costs, and this will be achieved through a process of continuous improvement to bring about efficiencies in service delivery costs.

The minister revealed some figures in question time today. I cannot quite recall the figures, but I think he said that since May this year there have been 89 double shifts worked by nurses at the hospital, a majority of which were in either emergency or intensive care. One wonders whether the nurses in emergency or intensive care have had enough of the continuous improvement that the minister is determined to foist on them. I must say it is quite frightening to reflect on this. If one had been one of those patients who had gone in to emergency or intensive care at the end of one of those double shifts, one wonders whether one would have gone there with the degree of sanguinity that one should be able to take when admitted to the hospital.

Despite funding shortages, staff walkouts and the cancellation of elective surgery at the Canberra Hospital, the government has failed to spend $8.4 million of Commonwealth money set aside 30 months ago for urgent and critical surgery. The minister has given some indication in the last couple of days of some arrangements he has made with other hospitals to deal with this intractable problem of waiting lists and waiting times.

At a budget estimates hearing this year, Mr Lee Koo from the Canberra Hospital stated:

In other words, the hospital cannot have any more money until it meets its current targets. However, it is highly likely that without additional funding those targets will become increasingly difficult to reach. In essence, the longer the waiting list gets the less likely it is that there will be any funding relief from the government in terms of the $8.4 million set aside for urgent critical surgery. Mr Rayment, during those same estimates, said this:

Action taken by the Australian Nursing Federation last week indicates that resources are already being pushed to the limit in Canberra hospitals. This budget alludes to further cost cutting that can only exacerbate the detrimental impact on a hospital system already under siege.

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