Page 4042 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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MR HANSON (Molonglo) (12.24): I just indicate that the opposition will be supporting the motion as moved by Mr Rattenbury.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Public Accounts—Standing Committee
Report 9
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (12.24): I present the following report:
Public Accounts—Standing Committee—Report 9—Review of Auditor-General’s Report No 4 of 2009: Delivery of Ambulance Services to the ACT Community, dated 5 August 2010, including additional comments (Mr Smyth), together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings.
I move:
That the report be noted.
I am pleased to speak to this report. The public accounts committee resolved to inquire further into the Auditor-General’s report on the basis of the significance of the service delivery examined, the significance of the audit findings, the public response by the responsible minister in relation to audit findings, the ACT community’s interest in the issues arising and the importance of confidence in the service delivery examined.
The Auditor-General’s report found that, whilst the ACT Ambulance Service had delivered a complex range of services against growing demand and limited capacity, there was significant scope for the service to improve its performance by addressing deficiencies in planning, documentation of policies and procedures, risk management and performance management review.
The committee acknowledges that ambulance services are a critical aspect of public sector service delivery. Further, the demand for ambulance services is under increasing pressure attributable to a range of demographic and socioeconomic variables and changing health system practices and policy environments, and this rising demand is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
The committee’s report has attempted to examine and reflect on several key themes concerning the delivery of ambulance services that arose as part of the inquiry. We made a number of recommendations which I will just quickly get to. We made 13 recommendations and, basically, they are all important. The initial recommendations relate largely to audits in general, and then the recommendations relate to the ambulance service in particular. I will not go through them in detail because I think they are pretty well explained in the report itself.
I would just like to conclude, firstly, by thanking all the stakeholders who contributed to the report by providing submissions and information and appearing before it. I would like to commend—I think I can probably speak on behalf of the committee—
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