Page 137 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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admitted to hospital in the middle of December, then he was out for a little bit, back in again, and then out and in again.
I guess the point about my father is that the hospital looked after him very well, but the hospital is only part of it. If we had had more specialist resources he would not have been in hospital, which would have been a plus from everybody’s point of view. The service he got there was very good, including follow-up phone calls when they found other things from tests which had not been finished.
My partner was not admitted to hospital, which I was very pleased about. What he presented with were obviously quite different symptoms and he was dealt with quite differently and appropriately. I would have to say that, while spending less time hanging around the hospital would have been a plus, the service that we got in both instances seemed to me to be—while not always as quick as I would have liked—appropriate given the totally different circumstances of the two presentations.
A number of my friends went through Canberra Hospital and the associated parts of it in January. It got to the stage where I actually had said to a number of people that it was okay if they were sick in January. That was fine because I had plenty of spare time, but come February when we are back, they had to stop being sick. I have to say that, fortunately, that has to quite an extent happened.
Getting more into the actual details of this debate, I would like to point out to Mr Coe that Ms Bresnan has not been supporting Ms Gallagher. What she has been trying to do is set the record straight and talk about the actual issues in this debate. It is about promoting good health, good health outcomes. That is what we are trying to do. We are trying to create a health system where constituents get the best services.
Our issue is not whether Katy Gallagher is the health minister or is not the health minister. Our issue is good public health and good health for the ACT. We think it is important that if we have a policy and accountability debate we do it with information rather than just saying, “She said this, she did not do this—she whatever, she whatever.” That is not helpful.
Ms Bresnan did in fact acknowledge in her speech that there were problems with the health system. She talked about the information in the Auditor-General’s report, including that current policy is not being implemented as it should be. If it is not being implemented then it is patients who suffer the most. There are communication problems. We acknowledge this. We also acknowledge, of course, that the current waiting times require improvements, and I would acknowledge that from recent personal experience.
Mr Hanson has chosen to ignore other information in the Auditor-General’s report and provided in a briefing. Mr Hanson also mentioned that nurses were being bullied. If, in fact, he is referring to the nurses in obstetrics, it should be noted that the ANF preferred the Greens’ proposal about how the bullying inquiry should be handled—in a sensitive and delicate manner rather than the board of inquiry which the Liberals proposed.
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