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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Tuesday, 2 March 2004) . . Page.. 491 ..

He might suggest that we close the special care nursery. He might think that cardiothoracic services should be delivered only from Sydney. Perhaps he believes that all neurosurgery should be done interstate, or that we should tell the Commonwealth that we do not really want to pay for the medical centre. This government will do none of those things as it is committed to ensuring that Canberra hospital is a strong tertiary facility in the future.

Mr Smyth’s constant harping was not about effective opposition; he was simply making a political point. The people in our hospitals, and the large number of Canberrans who depend on them, know how hard our hospital staff work and how effective and efficient they are in providing quality health services. People in the ACT sometimes get a jaundiced view of the effectiveness of our health services because of Mr Smyth’s jaundiced point of view.

I will place on the record statistics relating to Canberra hospital. To the end of January 2004 Canberra hospital treated 30,524 inpatients, which is an increase of 1,100 on the figure to January 2003. It managed an additional 410 emergency department presentations compared to the same period last year. It provided 6,000 more outpatient occasions of service over the period to 31 January 2003. Even in areas where there is continuing concern and staff shortages, such as radiation oncology, there is cause for optimism. Recent initiatives by the government to increase the number of radiation therapists are working. We are increasing the number of people accessing services in the ACT.

In the 2002-03 budget the government provided $330,000 to establish additional radiation therapists and radiation oncologists in the radiation oncology department at the Canberra hospital. The government’s initiatives are working. It is spending the money and it is achieving the results. Current staffing of radiation therapists is now 18 full-time equivalents against an establishment of 21.5 full-time equivalents. That is an increase of three therapists since November 2002. Three of the four radiation oncologist positions are currently filled. Over recent months the average waiting times for access to services has shown continued improvement.

Mr Smyth likes to allude to staffing costs as an administrative cost for our hospital. I would like him, as shadow minister for health, to visit Canberra hospital and to tell the nursing staff, medical staff and allied health staff that their salary payments are just an administrative cost that should be kept down. That is what he said in a press statement that he released today. I would like him to visit the radiation oncology department and to tell staff members in that department how the $2.75 million that was spent on state-of-the-art cancer treatment is an administrative cost that should not be taken into account when we are looking at improving service delivery at our hospital. That is what the shadow minister for health said.

This Government allocated money to improve equipment in the oncology department at Canberra hospital. As I just said, $2.75 million was allocated for new CT simulators, radiation therapy planning software and multi-leaf collimators, which replaced equipment that was over a decade old—something that the previous government failed to do. If Mr Smyth thinks that spending money on state-of-the-art cancer treatment is an administrative cost he should have the honesty to say so in public. Further work is under

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