Page 529 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 16 February 2005
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a minimum of three years. I suspect it is four years; so they look like they got full accreditation. The John James Memorial Hospital, for instance, is accredited to 10 October 2008; so they would appear to also have managed to gain full accreditation, unlike the hospital system run by the Stanhope Labor government under the charge of health minister, Simon Corbell.
Mr Speaker, this is a very important motion and these are two very important pieces of information that the public should have access to. I think, if the government was sincere in their call that they always said they will be more honest, more open, more accountable, they will bring both of these reports in and table them by close of business today. We want both reports; we want the health council’s report and we want particularly the government’s action plan because so far every reform they have put in place, under both Mr Stanhope and Mr Corbell, has faltered. Indeed, it took the acting health minister last year, Mr Wood, to demand that the department do something, to demand that the head of health actually put in place a plan to address things like bed-lock, before we got any activity to suggest that the government was responding to their failure and the damage that they have done to the health system.
I commend this motion to the Assembly. It is very simple. If Mr Corbell is correct in that there is nothing to worry about, then there should be nothing to stop the government releasing this report, because clearly it would be a glowing report. But obviously there are flaws, because the government has been forced into the embarrassing situation of putting together an action plan for the remediation of the problems that they have caused in our No 1 public hospital, the Canberra Hospital, which used to have, under the previous Liberal government, full health accreditation. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (5.47): This motion is yet another example of the Leader of the Opposition’s relentless attack on the ACT health system. It is an attack that is not founded on fact but on political expediency.
Mr Smyth: Table the report then.
MS MacDONALD: Mr Speaker, could you ask Mr Smyth to refrain, because I heard him in silence and I ask that he do the same for me.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, order, please!
MS MacDONALD: It is an attack that is eating away at the morale of the territory’s nurses, doctors and health professionals. It is interesting, because Mr Smyth made a comment that this was not an attack on the nurses, the doctors or the health professionals Mr Smyth fails to understand that, by his continuous white-anting, he is undermining the morale of the health professionals working in the ACT health system. It is an attack that is undermining the community’s confidence and trust in our hospitals and our health system in general. It is an attack that contains no constructive criticism, only negative hype; it is not checked for accuracy before it is unleashed.
Mr Speaker, I am happy to put an end to this conspiracy right now and inform members that I understand the Minister for Health will be releasing the Canberra Hospital accreditation report and action plan and will do so on his return to duty. The Canberra
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