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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3526 ..

this government the answer to everything is to increase the budget. Before the last election and before the onset of all these problems the former health opposition spokesperson, the present Chief Minister, Mr Stanhope, said, “We will fix the health crisis by urgently injecting $6 million into the health system.” That injection of money resulted in this litany of disastrous headlines and in the crisis that the hospital has faced over the past 34 months.

The hospital system has not been fixed; it has got worse. Here is a newsflash for Mr Wood, the Acting Minister for Health. The health budget always increases. In some years it seems to increase from between 3 per cent and 7 per cent to between 7 per cent and 10 per cent, regardless of who is in government. We all know that the rate of inflation in the health area is somewhat higher—normally double, if not more—than the consumer price index. This argument is not about money; it is about what is happening with that money.

There is a stack of money in the system; it has just been put in the wrong places. The problem is the government and its management of the system or, in this case, its lack of attention or its failure to manage the system. Mr Wood complained about my use of the words “bureaucratic model”. How else can I describe a system in which the first action of the chief executive of ACT Health after the restructure was to appoint two new deputy chief executive positions at a cost of over $500,000 a year? All that created was a bigger bureaucracy. The hospital has been sucked into the bureaucracy.

How else can I describe it other than as a model that has been put in place to suit the department? That model has not been designed to look after the people of the ACT. A cursory glance at the organisational chart in the annual report of the health department reveals a ludicrously top heavy organisation. If that is not a bureaucratic model I do not know what is. While senior executives and others enjoy the perks, the hospital system, in particular, Canberra Hospital, is hopelessly clogged at the front end. That is the problem. This government continually states, “There is no crisis. It is okay because the health system in the ACT is better than elsewhere.” The ACT hospital system has always been better than elsewhere. It has always achieved much more than the other states and territories. However, that has slipped under this government.

I refer now to the issue of bed block—an issue that has been discussed before and that I am sure will be discussed again. The bed block issue was brought to the attention of this government when it came into office but it has done nothing to resolve it. Going back through the Hansard of previous estimates committees reveals that, year after year, somewhere between 24 and 35 nursing home-type patients are in the acute hospital system. They should not be there; they should be in nursing home-type facilities. However, no nursing home-type facilities are available because none have been approved.

We had a recent flurry of activity by the Chief Minister who was attempting to prove that he was doing the job. After 34 months in office this government is yet to make a firm decision on the Calvary site for aged care. Mr Deputy Speaker, you would well know that it is the fault of the Little Company of Mary as the government gave it the go-ahead last month. Mr Stanhope is now beating his chest and saying, “Why has it not done something?” After 32 months of government inactivity it is appropriate that that group makes an informed decision. I am sure it will do that quickly.

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