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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3510 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

considerations? Why has that not been done? Nobody in the community knows that those grasslands are there and they are not marked on the map.

MR SMYTH: Again, the consultants have been asked to comment and develop plans for that area. I await the consultants' report. I understand that it will take into account many things and I am sure that environmental considerations will be part of that.

MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Minister for Health, Housing and Community Care. An article in the Chronicle newspaper of 7 November reported that the Canberra Hospital was investigating claims that doctors had told a patient's daughter that because her mother was not privately insured, she did not fit the hospital's admission criteria. In the article the minister is reported as saying the doctor's comments might have been misunderstood; that the doctor may have been referring to admission to a private hospital. Given that the patient was at the Canberra Hospital, it is rather difficult to accept there was a misunderstanding.

Can the minister say if the hospital's investigation is complete? Was the patient's daughter in fact told that her mother would have been admitted to the Canberra Hospital if she had private health insurance?

MR MOORE: I think it is important to set out the base line. Anybody who wishes to go to the Canberra Hospital can do so. Whether they live here in the ACT or whether they live in New South Wales, they are entitled to come in and they will then be assessed on clinical need. The individual may not have any private insurance. Under those circumstances the hospital would deal with them in that way. They may have private insurance and if they do so the hospital will still deal with them as a public patient unless they elect to use their private insurance, which then gives them a special choice. That gives them the choice of their particular doctor.

I do not know the particular circumstances, although I have asked for a report on them. It has not come to me yet and, Mr Hargreaves, I will be happy to share it with you when I get it. But what we have is a situation where the Canberra Hospital-one of the best hospitals in Australia, as identified by Australian accreditation standards-is prepared to take anybody who comes through their door and deal with them on the basis of clinical need.

That having been said, it is appropriate for the hospital to encourage people to use private insurance. It would be appropriate for the hospital to do that not only because it gives the person their choice of doctor if they want that but the more patients that use their private insurance the better off the financial position of the hospital will be. But nobody is forced to use their private insurance. There is a very clear policy and that has certainly been made clear to all of the staff within the hospital.

There are some individual doctors who have at times acted inappropriately in this way. When my office hears of cases like that we approach the CEO of the hospital, who in turn ensures that the doctor is reminded of his or her responsibility. It just may have been one of those cases.

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