Page 369 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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to prevent admission in the first place or whether it is through improvements to the access improvement program as a result of improved work practices. All of these measures are working and access block is on the decline because of them.
MR MULCAHY: I ask a supplementary question. If the reforms are working, why are so many elderly people still enduring these inhumane experiences?
MR CORBELL: There is more work to be done to reduce access block in our public hospitals. But the message is very clear. The comprehensive program the government has put in place is working, and the figures back that up. I do not how many times I am going to have to explain this to Mr Mulcahy. Mr Mulcahy, have a look at the outcomes we are getting. This government is getting the outcomes. The outcomes include reduced access block. Access block at the Canberra Hospital emergency department is down from 45 per cent to 27 per cent in the past 12 months. I am going to keep saying it, Mr Speaker—
Mr Mulcahy: Well, go and tell the people affected, minister.
MR CORBELL: because that is a halving. Mr Mulcahy, I can assure you that any Canberran who shows up at the emergency department who is category 1 and needs treatment straightaway because they are in a life-threatening situation gets that care. They get that care on time. They get that access when they need it.
Mr Mulcahy: This is a serious issue.
MR CORBELL: When it comes to category 3, category 4 and category 5—
Mr Mulcahy: What about category 2?
MR CORBELL: there are still people waiting too long. I know that and I accept that.
Mr Mulcahy: I have given you cases.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR CORBELL: But Mr Mulcahy and those opposite need to accept that this government—
Ms MacDonald: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The continuous interjections of Mr Mulcahy, in spite of your directions and in spite of standing order 39 have been the summation, basically the cumulative effect of the Liberal opposition—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MacDonald: The opposition have been continually flouting standing order 39, Mr Speaker. I ask that you direct them to desist.
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