Page 1522 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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MR MULCHAY (Molonglo) (5.51): I support the motion of my colleague Mrs Burke, who has raised some serious concerns about the state of the ACT health system. These concerns have been verified by the latest report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, released on 31 May. I do want to stress that they are problems that were around long before this report was released. These problems were highlighted by the Auditor-General's report into elective surgery waiting times as long ago as 2004. This issue, of course, is the subject of an ongoing inquiry by the public accounts committee, which will be reporting back shortly.
The problems are ones that had already been noticed by the people waiting in emergency departments in ACT public hospitals. They have certainly been noticed by the people waiting for elective surgery in ACT public hospitals. They have been noticed by their families and by their friends who have stood by them while they have waited and waited and waited. Indeed, my family’s experience with our public hospital system was one of the factors motivating me to nominate for the 2004 elections. A life-threatening experience that we encountered in our health system left us with the clear impression that people were operating under unnecessary pressure in that environment.
The report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that if Canberra's public hospitals did the same job, on a casemix adjusted separation basis, that they are doing now, but at the same cost as other similar hospitals in Australia, then their costs should be $61 million less; that is, $61 million could be saved if Canberra's public hospitals could perform even at the average cost round the rest of Australia. If they could perform better than the average, we would save even more.
It is quite mischievous for the Chief Minister to be saying, as he said this morning, that the Liberals want to slash $61 million off the health budget. That is misrepresenting a situation which was very clearly spelt out today and which I am again spelling out this evening. The fact of the matter is that what we are saying is that if things are run efficiently, if you can at least match the average performance of other jurisdictions, then it ought to cost us $61 million less, which would free up funds for other functions of government. But we seem to have a situation where improvements and efficiency are resisted and the answer to every problem is to throw more cash at them. Throwing more money at situations does not always lead to improved results. It requires much more to be applied and it needs a strong commitment in terms of advancing efficiencies in the delivery of core services. That is what Mrs Burke said in public comment last week and it is what she has said today. It is what I am advocating and it has been a consistent position on this side of the chamber.
It is interesting that the report found that the administrative costs for Canberra’s public hospitals were 26 per cent greater than the average of comparable hospitals in Australia. In fact, the report showed that the ACT had the most costly public hospitals in Australia. You can argue about time frames and whether things might have improved since the report was collated, but the fact of the matter is that since I have been in this place the reports coming out of AIHW, as they do become available, even when they are somewhat backcast on earlier years, do not paint the situation in the
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