Page 1507 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that despite the ongoing dedication and commitment by the ACT’s nurses, doctors and allied health workers in the public hospital system:
(a) the recently released report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found the ACT performed poorly against a range of health indicators;
(b) elective surgery lists continue to grow, with Canberrans waiting one month longer, on average, than the national median waiting time for elective surgery; and
(c) medical labour costs are growing and the ACT recorded the worst emergency department performance out of all States and Territories; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) acknowledge the poor performance of the ACT health system against other jurisdictions; and
(b) take action to make the necessary improvements that will provide Canberrans with a higher quality of care.
I must make it very clear from the onset of debate on the motion this afternoon that the ACT’s nurses, doctors and allied health workers are, I am very certain, working extremely hard to offer the best health service to all Canberrans. But, sadly, I have to say that I do not believe that the system is working for them or supporting them as fully as it could.
This motion draws attention—again, sadly, for another year—to the point that Canberra is falling further behind other jurisdictions across Australia in one of the key areas of responsibility of our government: offering a health system that maintains and protects our quality of life.
The Stanhope government, in handing down the 2007-08 budget, trotted out a number of initiatives to fill the holes in the dyke. It appears that no matter how much funding is targeted to fill these holes—with the rollout of program after program and new initiative after new initiative—the government simply cannot, in some crucial and critical areas of performance for hospitals, outperform any other jurisdiction in Australia. It is the responsibility of the Stanhope government, and in particular the health minister, to now take appropriate action to correct the situation that, unfortunately, for the past two years, has not seen very encouraging figures produced on the performance of Canberra’s public hospitals.
The opposition is calling on the government to take urgent and appropriate action to improve the performance of the ACT public hospital system. It is all very well to pontificate about the additional funding being pumped into the system from the latest budget—close to $67 million extra over four years to high priority areas. However, Canberrans expect that, when they get ill, they will be looked after by staff who are
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .