Page 405 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 February 2013
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We have schools that have continual mould problems. We have schools whose students have been forced to relocate, possibly for years, because of asbestos issues and other factors. Other schools are cramped with old buildings and pokey classrooms.
When we move to other areas in the report we again find the ACT wanting, and no more so than in health. This is another area in which the Chief Minister has been especially selective in commenting on. After all the focus the Canberra Liberals have put on driving improvements in emergency waiting times and all the claims the Chief Minister has made about what improvements she has delivered in health, we find things are not getting better. It is not just the ACT opposition saying so, Chief Minister; have a look at what this national report really says. You might share some of our concerns if you read it with a little bit of pragmatism rather than just looking for glory in all of the statements that you come out with. Our concerns are backed up by hard data, Chief Minister, produced by the Productivity Commission.
In fact, as the report shows, the ACT has the second-worst percentage of patients seen across all triage category time frames of all jurisdictions. When you drill down into individual categories, the picture is not good. It tells us that only half the people presenting to our emergency departments are seen on time. For emergency cases, only the Northern Territory has a worse response rate. For urgent category cases only 50 in every 100 patients are seen—
Ms Gallagher: Small jurisdictions with a very low number of hospitals. That is what it is.
MR DOSZPOT: Chief Minister, this is a debate on presenting a matter of public importance; I would be interested to hear your response to it. For emergency cases, only the Northern Territory has a worse response rate, and I repeat it: for urgent category cases only 50 in every 100 patients are seen within the acceptable time frame, the second worst in the country. For semi-urgent cases the number drops to 47 in every 100 patients, the worst of every state and territory. For non-urgent cases, again, it is the worst in the country.
For six years as health minister Ms Gallagher has been saying she would improve the ACT’s health system, and for six years we have seen our emergency department waiting times get worse. (Quorum formed.) The Chief Minister’s media release issued on the Productivity Commission report highlights an improvement in waiting times for elective surgery for those patients who have waited more than a year for surgery. What she again failed to point out is that the improvement comes from a very low base—a very low base indeed—with waiting times still the second longest in Australia.
When we move to corrective services the story gets no better. Not surprisingly, the Chief Minister’s media release makes absolutely no mention of our ACT prisons. One can well understand why nothing was said—our prisons are, quite bluntly, the most expensive, most violent and least secure in the country.
For years the government has lauded our prison as the most human rights compliant. It was opened, eventually, with great fanfare, and Canberrans have been reminded
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