Page 2674 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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desperately on to category 1. When we look at the other figures, we see the worst in the country. They have said: “But look at category 1. Look how well we are going in category 1. We may not be doing very well in the other categories, but look at category 1.” On a number of occasions we heard the minister say, “The ACT has also achieved one of the best results in the country for the most urgent cases with 93 per cent of all urgent elective surgery patients admitted.” And then we saw another one in relation to 97 per cent. It is a sham. It is not true. That is the point. That is what we have seen from this documentation—that if you are category 1 and you are not going to be seen, you just get reclassified. It is very easy to deliver good stats on category 1 when you shift people out of category 1 simply because they cannot be seen in time.
That is the record of the government. That is what they do not want to discuss, and that is why the minister misled the Assembly to cover the fact. That is what we are talking about here. We have dealt with competence. The minister could not bring herself to even deal with the actual figures. She could not bring herself to deal with the fact that she is overseeing elective surgery waiting times which are worse than in New South Wales. Their whole defence is to say, “Well, look at category 1.”
Let us look at category 1 and let us look at what was happening. We asked those questions and we asked the questions on a number of occasions. The minister has misled both directly and indirectly, Madam Deputy Speaker, in answering these questions. First, the government write off the figures—they try and explain away the figures. Then when we use individual examples, they claim, “Well, that doesn’t reflect the overall figures.” But, of course, when we go to the overall figures they are worse than in New South Wales. On whichever measure, on individual cases or on the overall figures, they are doing badly.
We hear from Mr Wentworth’s experience: “Oh no, that can’t be true. That was a mistake.” Then we hear from Dr Peter Hughes. Dr Peter Hughes says that this is happening. The response is: “Well, no, you can’t believe what Dr Peter Hughes says.” Then we have a minister on the back of this saying there is absolutely no evidence of downgrading elective surgery patients. When asked, “Have you ever been informed?” the response was:
It has never, ever, as I can recall, been raised with me as a problem … I have never had a case brought to my attention or any evidence to say that the process that is in place, which has doctors making those decisions, has not been followed.
The question was asked:
Minister, would you consider it appropriate or in accordance with policy that ACT Health would be contacting doctors to ask that they downgrade their patients?
The answer was:
It would not be in accordance with the policy …
These documents show the opposite. These documents show that Katy Gallagher has misled the Assembly. She has misled the Assembly to cover up her embarrassment at
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