Page 443 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
they want is resolution to the problems that they face. I have only the most enormous respect for the staff and that is reflected in the motion that I have moved today.
I do want to move, where we can, beyond the politics of this. I am not trying to pretend that this is all light and sunshine and that there is an end to politics in this place. But certainly this is an opportunity today to collaboratively, as an Assembly, say that there is a problem, recognise the problem and recognise a solution to it. Over successive years, over the last six years of the Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher, and her predecessors, there has been a steady decline in those waiting time performances. That is empirical data and we have reached a point where we are at our lowest ebb. There is no question.
If we turn to the latest quarterly report, it shows that across all categories the waiting times have deteriorated over the last year. In only one category we met the national targets but even in that category the time decreased. We had an explanation for the category 1 decrease yesterday. I thank the Chief Minister for that. Category 2 went from 73 per cent seen on time to 68 per cent; category 3, 48 per cent to 42 per cent; category 4, 47 per cent to 44 per cent; and category 5, 81 per cent to 78 per cent. Across all categories, the percentage went from 54 per cent to 50 per cent.
It is a significant decline and it is, as I said, the lowest in the ACT’s history and the longest waiting times in the nation. Disturbingly, the number of patients who just did not wait for one reason or another, who just actually gave up, went up eight per cent. The percentage of patients experiencing access block—that is, waiting longer than eight hours to be admitted to a bed—has increased. Thirty per cent of patients now wait more than eight hours. The latest report on government services provides some comparative data and shows how, comparative to other jurisdictions, we have deteriorated. We were at that point in the ROGS data—I acknowledge that that data is slightly out of date—just in front of the Northern Territory.
Yesterday the Chief Minister came up with some reasons for the problems—the size of the jurisdiction of the ACT and a range of different issues. But regardless of the excuses, regardless of the unique nature of the ACT, the fact is that we are just going backwards. We are going backwards at a rapid rate and we are going backwards comparative to other jurisdictions. That is just unacceptable.
The government signed up to national targets. From my understanding—the Chief Minister and the health minister may wish to clarify this—we look like missing out on about $800,000 of funding. If we knew that we had these unique circumstances, why have we signed up to targets that we are not going to achieve?
I am aware that pressure has increased on our emergency departments. There has been a six per cent increase since last year but that is not happening in isolation. It is happening across many jurisdictions. Why is it happening? There are a number of reasons for it. I do not have an exhaustive list but certainly I can mention the lack of access to GPs, the low rate of bulk-billing of GPs and the location of the nurse-led walk-in centre.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video