Page 393 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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Over the last three years we have funded our hospitals to meet the growth in demand for services such as interventional cardiology, cancer services, renal services and emergency department care. We have funded increases in the costs of technology. We have funded additional registrars to reduce the pressures on our young doctors and to improve the level of, and access to, care at our hospitals. The establishment of the ANU Medical School further enhances our reputation as a place to practise medicine. It will also provide a vibrant learning community that will ensure that the people of the ACT have access to the latest and best that the medical field has to offer.
Sometimes significant improvements can be made by changing the way things are done, rather than by spending more money. The type and nature of hospital services is changing dramatically. The integration of services across the continuum of care has blurred the barrier between hospital and community-based services. In more and more areas people are benefiting from improved health outcomes by the tailoring of health care to meet their needs at each stage of their illness. The minister has already spoken about a range of initiatives the government is implementing to meet the changing face of our health system.
There are issues that need to be addressed. The Labor government are proving that we are the best team to tackle these issues. The people in our health system are working very hard to further improve our health services, and I personally would like to thank them for their hard work and achievements in a demanding environment. I am encouraged by the increased participation of clinicians in planning and developing our services. I look forward to the outcomes of the initiatives that are currently under way.
I will just finish by noting that this was obviously the topic of the day for the opposition in question time, and there is nothing wrong with that. Ministers are here to be held accountable. Question time is actually about accountability. But at one point when the minister was answering a question, Mr Mulcahy interjected, saying that this is a serious issue that needs to be taken seriously. Mr Mulcahy was posturing from his seat. I have to say that this government take this issue very seriously. We take it very seriously every day, not just in question time. That is why we have dedicated so much time, energy and money to actually improving the system.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.39): This is a most important matter of public importance. I think the matter that probably most occupies the minds of average electors in the ACT is: when I go to hospital, will I get timely, efficient and appropriate service for myself or for members of my family? The minister spent a lot of time saying, “Well, it’s not real good, but we’re improving it,” but I would like to mention a few personal experiences of problems that my family has encountered in the health system. They are just the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong in the public hospital system at the moment.
Over the past two years, these things have happened in my family. A member of my family had a car accident and waited 3½ days for emergency surgery for a broken leg. On another occasion a member of my family lay on a coffee table in an emergency department waiting area for 2½ hours in need of pain relief and a drip. She could not obtain the pain relief and drip because there were no beds in the emergency department. After 2½ hours they eventually found her a bed. No-one was slacking off on this. They were looking very hard to get somebody out so they could put her in a bed and on a drip.
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