Page 1512 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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chronic conditions. We led the country. In fact, we were 32 per cent below the national average. That is a good outcome; we should acknowledge that.
Certainly we saw the issues that we have spoken about around elective surgery and the emergency department waiting time. But the surgery part of the report also indicates that we have got the best performance around access to emergency surgery of anywhere in the country. We perform at number one. We should talk about things when we perform at number one; we certainly talk about them enough when we are not in the number one spot.
I turn to elective surgery. I know that there has been some discussion around the median waiting times, including, when I was absent from the chamber, a rather nasty attack from Mr Smyth.
Mr Smyth: Just maths, minister.
MS GALLAGHER: I did not understand the question. I could not understand what the confusion was around the question. Perhaps the error I made in discussion last week was in not understanding that we were not talking about the same thing. I kept referring to targeting long waits, which is what Mrs Burke asked me to do in her speech. She cited the case of someone who is waiting 379 days for surgery—why do they have to wait? I agree with her. We targeted the long waits, and that has blown out our waiting times. It seemed to me that Mr Pratt, particularly, could not understand how that could happen—because they were removed from the list and therefore the waiting time should be shorter because the long waits have gone. But the issue was that that measure measures removals from the list. It does not measure the waiting list; it measures the people who were on the waiting list who have been removed from the list.
Mr Smyth: It does not say that in the report.
MS GALLAGHER: It does say that in the report.
Mr Smyth: No. The definition says exactly the opposite to what you are saying.
MS GALLAGHER: Well, it is not true.
Mr Smyth: I will get you the definition.
MS GALLAGHER: Yes, yes. This is the advice—
Mr Smyth: I will read the definition.
MS GALLAGHER: There is no end point to people who are on the waiting list. This is the point. How can you measure—
Mr Smyth: What is the point of measuring people who have left? It is the ones who are left on the list that count.
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