Page 1518 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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Do not believe the AIHW report because, yes, it is a year old. Do not believe the opposition. But there is a nurse in the emergency department saying a new floor, a new desk and a new uniform have not improved it. It is interesting that she mentioned the MAPU. We used to have in the army the expression SNAFU. Is a MAPU a medical SNAFU? I do not know, but perhaps it is.
Mr Speaker, let’s look at some of the outcomes under this government. Let’s look at what has changed. I would have to say that little has changed since February, despite the plaintiff bleatings of the current Minister for Health. I know that the minister inherited this problem from Mr Stanhope and then Mr Corbell, who ignored the portfolio. The reality is that despite hundreds of millions of extra dollars, three health ministers and many reform programs, the ACT still has problems in its health system. These problems continue in spite of the excellent efforts of the doctors, the nurses and the allied health professionals working in our system, a system that does not work for them and does not work for the residents of the ACT. They have done, and continue to do, a wonderful job and they have our thanks.
This motion identifies a number of issues that are having an adverse impact on the performance of the ACT’s public hospital system. These include the findings of the latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the trend in our waiting lists, the waiting times for elective surgery and the cost of operations in the ACT. To those can be added such matters as occasions of bypass at our public hospital. Each of these indicators show that the ACT is not performing particularly well. The public hospital system could be called sick. It has been sick sometimes, particularly since the efforts of the Stanhope government. We have spent more and got less since they have come to office.
Ms Gallagher: More beds, more elective surgery.
MR SMYTH: The minister says that there are more beds. I notice that she says in her amendment that the Stanhope government has funded an additional 147 beds in the ACT health system. How many of those were acute? That is the real question. She has a shot at the former Liberal government, saying that they replace 114 acute care beds, but let’s go to the critical numbers here. With fewer beds we did better, because we had a better system, because the hospital was independent and could perform as a hospital, not as an adjunct to the department. When we left office, the elective surgery waiting list was trending down and there were 3,488 people on that list. As of February this year there were 4,795 people on that list. What has happened $300 million later? The list has gone up a third, more than a third. Across Australia, 32 people per 1,000 are admitted to hospital in cases where intervention may have avoided hospitalisation. The ACT, to its credit—
Ms MacDonald: He is just annoying.
Ms Gallagher: I know. It is bad for my blood pressure.
MR SMYTH: You need to listen as I am about to say something nice about you, minister. The ACT actually has the lowest rate of avoidable hospitalisations in Australia. There are some parts of the system that are okay. In this case, the
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