Page 1938 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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What I am saying is that, if we did nothing—if we did not change the way our system works—we would not be able to meet the needs of our future community.
It is not waffle; it is fact. You will see it in terms of the growth in activity that is performed at the hospital. You will see it from reports such as the one we have done recently with year 6 students, which showed that 25 per cent of our 11 and 12-year-olds are overweight or obese. When you extrapolate that out to 20 years—what it is going to mean in terms of managing 30-year-olds who have had that level of obesity when they are 11—you can see that the management of the obvious chronic disease that you are going to have—namely, heart disease and type 2 diabetes—will be significantly more than for the populations we are dealing with now.
That is what I am talking about. Unless the system changes and unless we have capacity to do more in the home—keep people out of hospital, manage their disease early in partnership with a GP—the acute system will not cope. I do not think that you will find anyone who works in the health system who will disagree with the comments I made earlier in the week.
It is certainly not waffle. In terms of activity, we report quarterly on levels of activity around a whole range of areas. You would receive that information. In fact, I think that you have taken on the FOI requests and get that information monthly. You will see that it clearly supports what I have said.
MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mrs Burke?
MRS BURKE: Thank you. Further to that, in developing your plans, minister, what face-to-face consultations did you have with nursing staff and health professionals?
MS GALLAGHER: For access health, are we talking about?
Mrs Burke: No, talking to people across the board.
MS GALLAGHER: In terms of the planning work that we are doing, we consult. In fact, I cannot think of an area in health where we do not consult with all stakeholders. I meet with the ANF regularly. They are the main body I deal with in relation to nurses, although we have the nurses and midwifery board, which I also met with.
Mrs Burke: Have you talked to nurses, though, particularly face-to-face?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Burke!
MS GALLAGHER: I talk to nurses all the time. It is part of my job. I do it on a daily basis almost. I held public meetings, for god’s sake! The whole of Canberra was invited to come and have a word with me about future directions for ACT Health. We advertised in the paper. We advertised amongst all health stakeholders. I meet with the health consumers association. I can rattle off all the mental health groups I deal with.
Mrs Burke: It is the nurses that say you are not talking to them.
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