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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4374 ..

The intermittent care service community-based packages which I announced today will improve quality of life for older persons until a new sub-acute facility at Calvary comes on line in 2006, with its 40 transitional rehabilitation care and 20 psychogeriatric beds. This jointly funded initiative of the Australian government and the ACT is another practical measure that will relieve stresses on our public hospitals. The new service will accommodate the wishes of many older persons to remain supported in their homes, to return home from hospital or to enter a residential aged care facility with a high level of physical functioning and improved confidence.

Other post-hospitalisation initiatives that the government has introduced include the ACT transitional care program at Morling Lodge, the transitional support program through community options and indeed our ACT convalescent service at Calvary Hospital.

I could go on, but the point I want to make to members today is: it is not just about pointing the finger and saying who is to blame; it is about saying who is going to engage in a constructive, proactive approach to addressing the pressures in our health system.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.

MS TUCKER (5.40): Yes, we do seem to have rather a lot of MPIs on health. I cannot say that I am hearing a lot different from the proposers of the MPIs. I have, I think, covered fairly comprehensively in past MPIs my concerns or the Greens’ concerns about broader private health care in the ACT. When we see issues of unmet need we have always made the link between that analysis and the need for acute care beds in hospitals because, obviously, if you have good primary health care, then you are less likely to need the hospital beds. We have, as well, of course linked it with the question of aged care beds.

Today I thought I might actually get involved in what seems to be the constant debate about beds. Ever since I have been in this place I have heard this debate. When Labor was in opposition, they were saying what the Liberals are saying now. I have not engaged in it to any great degree because I quite frankly thought there was enough attention on it from the major parties and that I would focus on the areas of health that they seemed less interested in, which were mental health, disabilities and so on.

Just listening today, I thought I would have a look at the history of beds. I looked at the report of the Assembly Select Committee on Hospital Bed Numbers in 1991. I looked at what they were saying then and it really makes fascinating reading. I looked at the state of the environment report 2000 and it said that in the ACT there were 784 beds available in acute care public hospitals in 1996-97. People might have a different interpretation of these numbers—and I am happy to be enlightened—but this is what I have got from the reading I have done today in preparation for this. This fell to 768 in 1997-98. That was under the Liberals obviously.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Australian hospitals stats for 2002-03 show the number of public acute hospital beds as 682, which is 2.1 per thousand of the population; and 408 private, 1.3 per thousand.

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