Page 2521 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 June 2005
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grade their position against the last time this was done, which was five years ago. Of those, in one category we did better. Well done, minister; you went up in one category. In three categories we remain the same. For all the additional spending, 35 per cent above national average on hospital spending, three of the categories remain the same. Four very important categories got worse.
The minister for many years now—he has been Minister for Health for two and a bit years—has hidden behind the line, “Yes, we have got problems but we are so much better than all the other jurisdictions.” This report kills that excuse because, if you look at this report, you will see that on the important issues we are not better off than the other jurisdictions; we are way behind.
The minister was on the radio this morning, saying, “Look, you have to remember that Canberra Hospital is the 15th biggest hospital in the country,” as if it was some sort of excuse. If you take that into account—and it is the 15th; page 10 of the report says that Canberra Hospital is the 15th busiest public hospital in the country—you would think, “Maybe that is an excuse.”
No 1 is the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Victoria; it is the busiest hospital in this country. Based on Mr Corbell’s assertion that we fall down the list because we are busy, you would think that Royal Melbourne and the Victorian hospital system would be at the absolute bottom of the pile on key indicators.
Mrs Dunne: And where is it, Mr Smyth?
MR SMYTH: A good question, Mrs Dunne. In the critical issue of the percentage of people seen within the recommended time in the emergency departments, the Victorian system is No 1; 80 per cent of Victorians who present are seen on time; 80 per cent within the recommended time frame. Where is the ACT? No 4; 65 per cent of those that present get seen on time. In regard to the emergency department and the median waiting time, the Victorians falter. That is where they fall down. They see some people and they see them really fast, but on the median time they fall down because they are the busiest system in the country. And where are they? No 1. The median waiting time is 15 minutes in Victoria.
In regard to the ACT, you would think, “Because we are busy too, if Victoria can do it, we can do it; so we must be No 2.” But we are not. That went to Western Australia. We are not three, four, five, six or seven, which of course leaves the final post, No 8. There is the ACT with the worst time, at a median waiting time for emergency departments for all patients of 35 minutes. The excuse that we are better than all of the other jurisdictions goes out the window. The excuse that we are really busy goes out the window because the median waiting time is 35 minutes. I will take my second 10 minutes, if I may, Mr Speaker. The Australian average is 25 minutes and we are 10 minutes outside that. So let us not be fooled by the excuses that the minister puts up.
He also said that we have beds coming. The number of beds is an interesting argument. There are 20 beds coming, apparently, and they are funded in this budget. If you look at the bed numbers, we rank seventh in the number of available beds—seventh behind such luminaries as the Northern Territory and South Australia, which got one and two. The
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