Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2325 ..

least, has managed to reduce its waiting list for elective surgery; Calvary managed to reduce its list by some 76 patients. But it’s a shame, Mr Speaker, that any gains made by Calvary in elective surgery are then wiped out by the Canberra Hospital. Canberra Hospital’s waiting list for May blew out by 105.

I’ll be interested in the excuses that the minister makes this time. I’ve got his press release. It’s got the numbers—and what is the old adage “lies, damn lies and statistics”?—and says that 746 people were admitted for surgery at Canberra Hospital, an increase of 172 from April’s figure. Makes it sound good, Mr Speaker! Well, let’s look at this government’s ability to manage the hospital lists. The total hospital waiting list continues to trend upwards, rising to 4,489 people for the month of May. In the past 4½ years, Mr Speaker, only one month, January this year, recorded a higher total. It is the second highest total in the last 4½ years.

The total number of overdue patients increased again, to 1,709 Canberrans; that is, 38.1 per cent of all patients waiting are now overdue. The highest average was 42.7 in February this year, Mr Speaker. It’s interesting because under the previous government the average was 28.6 per cent of patients were overdue per month. So what we’ve got is a list that’s growing and an overdue time factor that is also increasing way beyond what the previous government had. Indeed, the waiting list is 20 per cent higher than what was left to this current government.

The third, and interesting, statistic, Mr Speaker, is the average monthly number of patients overdue in terms of this government. It is now 1,566 Canberrans—1,566 individuals every month overdue. During the previous government the monthly average was 1,092. So, Mr Speaker, have no doubt this system is in crisis—and that’s through the good part of the year, that’s through summer and through autumn.

Where are we heading for now? We’re heading for winter. And we must be concerned that the hospital system is in such a state when we’re heading into winter. We’ve got the ski season, with the likelihood of serious injuries in the snowfields. They inevitably end up in the Canberra Hospital. And it’s not just the snowfields; it’s the increased traffic. The traffic hazard of driving in dark, cold, frosty and often raining or snowing conditions leads to other injuries on the roads coming to and from the snowfields. We’ve got the onset of the cold and flu season. We’ve already seen the impact of that on the emergency department, with a number of wards being closed in recent weeks.

An additional source of injuries this year, Mr Speaker, will be the rock-hard ovals and playing fields that are now common place throughout Canberra. The continued drought conditions have turned many of the local ovals into what can only be described as concrete dust bowls. I would not be surprised, Mr Speaker, if this year’s football season did not see a dramatic increase in broken bones as a result of those conditions. It’s already been highlighted on the national news—on channel 10, I think it was, about two weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon—when they were discussing this complaint already occurring around the nation; and it’s been highlighted in a couple of articles in the Canberra Times.

All of these factors will come to bear on the hospitals—the same hospitals that have been unable to cope on 30 other occasions in the last seven months on busy days now face a rapid influx of cases ranging from severe road trauma to broken bones to influenza.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .