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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3600 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

be in nursing home beds in nursing homes ought not to be in hospital any longer than they need to be to be treated for their acute trauma. If there is a significant concession that the minister has won, this is it.

This agreement means that the ACT government can use this funding to allow people to be transferred from hospital to more appropriate care while they are waiting for a permanent nursing home place to become available. That is a significant concession and I hope that the shadow minister for aged care will take note of it-he has been squawking about these sorts of issues for some time-and will join me in congratulating the minister on achieving this. I look forward to hearing him congratulate the minister. Notwithstanding that there might be a little bit of self-interest involved, he ought to jump to his feet instantly and say, "Good on you, Minister."But I do not know whether I will live long enough to hear that.

The ACT government is keen to work with the other states and territories and the Commonwealth to reform the health system. The health reform agenda includes:

(1) GP services and emergency departments. There have been a number of successful trials of providing general practitioners in or near hospitals on weekends and after hours. These trials have helped reduce pressure on emergency departments while ensuring that patients get the services they need. This is an example of governments working together, and these trials should be extended.

(2) The public hospital system and the aged care system. A national shortage of residential aged care beds means that older people are being kept in acute care wards in public hospitals. The situation benefits neither old people nor public hospitals. Trials, including the multipurpose services, are a good example of the Commonwealth and the states working together, and we need to build on this.

(3) Coordination of patient care. A continuum of care needs to be provided for patients so that there is no disruption to the service they receive arising from movements between inpatient, general practice and community-based parts of the system.

(4) Elective surgery. A national elective surgery access strategy should be developed to provide surgery for those who have been waiting a long time for procedures such as total hip replacements and total knee replacements. I have received quite a number of representations from my constituents expressing quite a deal of frustration and dismay at the length of time it takes to get hip replacements and knee replacements, so I welcome that approach.

(5) E-health and the quality of care. The quality and transfer of health records for patients must be improved by taking advantage of new information and communication technologies. I can recall, in my time with Health, talking about having shared information on medical data. Privacy was certainly an issue then but, more importantly, technology was the problem. The transfer of information between general practitioners and community health centres was very difficult because of the technology. We now have the technology, so I believe we should be moving rather quickly on this.

(6) Workforce issues. Further reforms are needed to overcome the shortage of GPs, nurses and other health professionals and to obtain a better distribution of all categories

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