Page 2704 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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We understand that it has to be integrated and you just cannot say, “I am only responsible for this bit and, by the way, none of the statistics which you quote back at me matter.” The statistics do matter, Mr Speaker, because they are not just numbers. Every one of those statistics, every one of those bad stories, every one of those people on a list that grows is a person, is a human being with needs, is a citizen that the health minister is responsible for the health and wellbeing of.
When at the end of the day you get doctoring of data, you know there is something fundamentally flawed in a system—whatever the motivation of that person for doctoring the data. We wait for the Auditor-General’s report on what those motivations were, why this occurred and why it occurred for such a long period. It will be interesting to see how long the period truly was and how many records were doctored.
At the end of the day, all of those people, all of those doctored documents, represent a person. What people want is confidence in the system should they need it. Most people will not need it in an emergency. Hopefully, none of us will need it in an emergency, but accidents happen; things happen. But they want some confidence that they will be able to access their health system, which this year will cost about $1.3 billion—$1.3 billion!—and that it will work for them.
The point is that, after 11 years of Labor government, it does not work the best that it could for them, their families or their friends when they need it. If we take the holistic approach—Mr Hanson has put some great ideas forward and we will continue to put great ideas forward between now and the election—you cannot say, “I am only responsible for this,” and approach it in a disjointed manner.
Even Ms Bresnan had to stand up and say, “Yes, we do not measure up all that well on some measures.” That is correct and it is an interesting admission from the Greens. I do not think I have ever heard the Greens quite say that. But it is true. What we have to do is develop a system that works, not just for those that have to participate in it due to ill health, but for those who actually are the system.
I refer to the pharmacy assistants, the doctors’ receptionists, the GPs themselves, the specialists, the nurses, the allied health professionals, the public servants that work the system behind those in the front line. They should be able to go to work and say that they enjoy their work. So many of them say to me that the system is not a happy place. When a system is not happy places to work in, you need to look at the leadership in that system.
What we do not have is leadership. What we do have is the old Labor answer to everything: “We put more money into it. Aren’t we good? Things will get better.” They do not seem to be getting better. If you go through the litany that Mr Hanson has in his motion, the percentage of emergency department patients seen on time, for example, has deteriorated from 78 per cent in 2001 to 58 per cent in the latest report. I count that as a fail. When the median wait time for elective surgery has grown from 44 days in 2001-02 to 76 days in the latest AIHW report, I would say that is a fail.
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