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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2331 ..

I would like to go back to the points made by Mr Smyth about how badly we are doing in relation to elective surgery. Before we go to the substantive point, Mr Corbell likes to say we are having more operations than we’ve had in the past. Mr Speaker, the technical term is cost-weighted separation. A cost-weighted separation is quite different from an operation. I could go into theatre and have two or three procedures done at once. That’s one cost-weighted separation or two or three cost-weighted separations, but it might be four or five procedures, and they will all be called an operation. Let’s keep our classifications right. Let’s not let Mr Corbell get away with talking about operations when what we’re talking about is cost-weighted separations. Let’s look at the figures.

In 2001-2002, the Liberal Party’s last budget, there were 14,168 cost-weighted separations in the ACT. In the 2002-2003 budget, that had fallen to 12,268. That is a shame. It is a searing indictment of the Stanhope government and the successive ministers for health. In 2003-2004, to 31 March, they had had 10,856 cost-weighted separations. The budget estimate for this year is 14,475. So we’re proposing that we will turn around an impossible figure. I believe, Mr Speaker, that this minister cannot achieve what he says in the budget estimates. Why would we suddenly get so good at it when we’ve been pathetic at it for the past two or three years?

Let’s look at the number of people on the elective surgery waiting list. 76 per cent of category 2 vascular surgery patients at TCH are overdue. 64 per cent of plastic surgery patients at TCH are overdue. They’re not people getting nips and tucks and facelifts, Mr Speaker; that’s not elective surgery; these are people who are there for good medical reasons, who need to have elective surgery, and 64 per cent of them are overdue. 62 per cent of category 2 paediatric patients, 62 per cent of our children on the waiting list in category 2, are overdue. 64 per cent of category 2 neurology patients at TCH are overdue. 100 per cent of plastic surgery patients at Calvary are overdue. These are people with burns, Mr Speaker, who need skin grafts. These are not people who are looking for a nip and a tuck and a facelift. 100 per cent of oral surgery patients at Calvary are overdue, and 100 per cent of category 2 ear, nose and throat patients at Calvary are overdue. This is what’s happening now, today, in our hospitals. This is a searing indictment of a minister who’s failed and who has failed the people of Canberra through a public hospital system which has failed.

We have huge overdue lists at Calvary Hospital, Mr Speaker, because the budget funding for Calvary Hospital has fallen so much in this financial year that Calvary was forced to close down its operating theatres for 14 weeks this financial year, which is more than a quarter of the time that it should be operating. We’ve seen that funding for surgery at Calvary Hospital has fallen from $25.8 million in 2001-02 to $22.4 million last year. This current year it is up to $28.7 million, but it is still below the level it was when the Liberals left government.

This minister keeps saying he’s spending more—and in places he is spending more—but it’s certainly not being spent at Calvary. The people of Belconnen and the people of Gungahlin are losing out here, with 14 weeks of surgery closure at Calvary. 100 per cent of ear, nose and throat patients at Calvary are not being treated.

Of course, Mr Speaker, you can’t get most orthopaedic work done in the ACT, especially hips and knees, because we’ve run out replacement joints and we can’t do that, unless

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