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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3377 ..

Answers to questions

Canberra Hospital-doctors on duty

(Question No 274)

Mr Cornwell asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 24 September 2002:

How many doctors are on duty in Casualty each hour of the day at The Canberra Hospital.

Mr Stanhope: The answer to the member's question is:

� The following medical staff provide the majority of the medical cover in the Emergency Department at TCH, for 3 shifts daily, 7 days per week:

Specialists/Senior Specialists 7 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions

Registrars 7 FTE positions

Residents and Interns 17 FTE positions

Total medical staff complement 31 FTE positions

� Other Resident Medical Officers and Community Medical Officers work some overtime in the Emergency Department to cover additional demands on the roster.

� It is difficult to specify how many doctors are on duty in the Emergency Department each hour of the day as the number of doctors does vary by shift. The average number of doctors on for each eight hour shift is nine. On day shifts and evening shifts there are more doctors on duty than during the night shift, to meet the higher patient presentations which occur between Sam and midnight. Most training of junior doctors also occurs during the day.

� The number of Medical FTE in The Canberra Hospital Emergency Department is comparable to that of similar sized NSW Hospital's Emergency Departments. In addition some of these staff also participate in the roster for the Aeromedical Retrieval Service which is generally not the case in otherwise similar emergency departments. The involvement in this roster also places additional work pressures on these staff.

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Poverty task group-report

(Question No 277)

Mr Cornwell asked the Chief Minister, upon notice, on 24 September 2002:

Further to your reply (via Mr Quinlan) to Question on notice No 224, where is the Report of the ACT Poverty Task Group "Sharing the Benefits" Options Paper due for release to the community for comment in August 2002.

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