Page 2597 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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In September 2011 Canberrans lost almost $1 million in health funding because the ACT Labor government failed to meet the target. In May you stated in relation to federal targets for emergency departments:
We will fulfil our obligations to the commonwealth government.
Minister, given ACT Labor’s history on promising to meet performance targets and then failing to do so, can the people of Canberra be confident that we will receive full federal reward funding for the emergency department?
MS GALLAGHER: That is certainly the intention, and the advice that I have before me today is that we will be able to reach the four-hour target that has been set for 2012.
In relation to the elective surgery targets, this has come up at ministerial meetings. I would say that governments around Australia have also lost money under that. In fact, I think the WA government lost more money than the ACT government in relation to elective surgery targets.
The issue there is that not everybody manages their waiting list the same. That is an issue that health ministers have taken up—to try and get a standardised approach to waiting lists now that waiting list management and targets and financial rewards are being included in commonwealth payments. What is clear is that you have different ways of managing your lists. We know—the New South Wales government admitted a lot of category 3 patients within five days of being put on a list—that there is something shonky going on around the country in terms of waiting list management.
That is an issue that is before health ministers.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, gentlemen.
MS GALLAGHER: We can, hopefully, get some standardised practice around how jurisdictions manage their waiting lists.
The staff in the emergency department and in the Health Directorate are very focused on meeting the targets that have been set by the commonwealth to ensure the reward funding flows.
Members interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: I would just like to draw members’ attention to the fact that nobody on the opposition benches is actually listening to the answer.
Mr Seselja interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Seselja, do you have a supplementary question?
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