Page 2664 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MS GALLAGHER: Exactly. Downgrading patients, a la the allegations you are putting to me, is not in accordance with the policy. What is in accordance with the policy is that the waiting lists be appropriately managed at all times. Thirty per cent of all surgery done at Canberra and Calvary hospitals is category 1 surgery. It has to be managed; 10,000 procedures a year—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Stop the clocks, please. Members, you know that I do not believe it is appropriate to have constant hectoring across the chamber, nor do I think flinging insults across the chamber under the cover of not being recorded in the Hansard is appropriate. I would ask members to desist. I will take further action if it does continue. Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thirty per cent of all surgery done at the Canberra and Calvary hospitals is category 1 surgery. It is around 3,000 procedures—probably just over 3,000 procedures. So you have to understand that it has to be managed. If there are concerns with categorisation of patients then the hospital has to manage that. The clinical director has to manage that and that is exactly what you see happening. What you see happening is the system working. Yes, it is under stress. Yes, it is under strain. Yes, we have got to do more around elective surgery to get our waits down.
But in terms of what is going on, in terms of managing and auditing the waiting lists, a proper process has to be there and has to be in place. Surgeons have to justify, at times, the category of patients they list their patients at. Particularly if they do not have the operating time to do the work, questions will need to be asked. For example, the question may have to be asked, “Who is going to do this procedure if you cannot because your time is all booked up with other patients?”
These are questions that have to be put and these are questions that Dr Bryan Ashman is seeking to address in his draft document, which did not get endorsed at the forum at which it was put because of concerns raised by other surgeons, as I understand it. That is the forum where those discussions need to be had.
It is not appropriate for the Assembly to determine the appropriate waiting list policy for management of patients at the Canberra Hospital and Calvary hospital. It has to be done in forums where surgeons have the freedom to speak and to discuss issues, particularly if there are areas of tension, which is always the case. There is more work to be done in elective surgery. We have increased our throughputs. There are over 10,000 procedures a year. Six years ago it was 7,000 procedures. We have been managing to up our elective surgery every single year. The rate of cancellation and postponements to surgery has almost halved; so people are not getting inconvenienced by having their surgery cancelled.
But for some patients in category 2 and category 3, where I think the median waiting time for category 2 is 104 days and category 3 is 192 days, yes, that is too long and we have got more work to do there. But just because of that, that does not mean that I
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video