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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4370 ..

The options to address it are in the wards, in the emergency department, in the theatre or in the community. Well, that is a good start. But when you get to how they are going to address it in the ward, it says that they are going to reintroduce the discharge lounge. Why was the discharge lounge allowed to go in the first place? These are all options that are so obvious and so simple or should be put in place—

Mr Corbell: I think it occurred when Michael Moore was minister.

MR SMYTH: Well, I checked with Michael Moore and he does not have any memory of it closing.

Mr Corbell: How convenient.

MR SMYTH: I checked with Mr Moore. You ring Mr Moore, too, Minister, and he will tell you the same. What we have got is a whole list of suggestions that are tinkering. What do they give us? According to the minister, they give us five to 10 beds. The population grows at about 3,000 people a year—1 per cent—and 3,000 people equals four acute beds every year. Virtually these extra beds have already been eaten up in this party’s time in office.

Then today we had the next step of the minister, freeing up hospital beds for emergency patients. What we are going to do is give out intermittent care service packages for eight to 12 weeks to help people go home. That is a good idea. But if they can go home, they are not a nursing home type patient. If they are going home, they are not going to clog up the hospital while they wait for a bed in a nursing home. It is interesting to read the only quote, the only independent validation, they could get. It is from Marc Budge, the Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine. He says:

The provision of intermittent care service represents a very welcome initiative which along with an urgent push for residential care beds for those awaiting and being offered permanent placement will significantly impact on the provision of appropriate care for older, frail Canberrans.

He does not mention that it is going to free up beds, and that is the problem. This government is ignoring the grim reality, the obvious reality, that without any extra beds and the extra staff to look after those patients or a change in the mix of staffing nothing will change.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): The member’s time has expired.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (5.25): This is the third matter of public importance regarding the ACT health system raised by the opposition since May. It is of course understandable, given that health is such a large component of the ACT budget, that it should attract this level of scrutiny. Scrutiny is welcome; the government welcomes it and we are quite happy to engage in this type of debate.

However three MPIs in about three months about the same matter really does show, I think, the lengths to which the Leader of the Opposition is keen to flog this subject. But

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