Page 2639 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 2013
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the advice of their bureaucrats. They can. But what the minister should not be doing is saying to the community something that simply was not true, saying that it will relieve pressure, saying that it is actually going to help the EDs when that was not the case, when she was warned it would not be the case and it has been proven not to be the case.
The problem comes when ministers ignore the advice, ignore experts, ignore the evidence and get it wrong, and as a result of getting it wrong, it means that people in our community are waiting in emergency departments longer than ever.
There is then the next issue, and that is the paediatric stream at the emergency department. I raise this because I do not know whether it is going to be a good idea or not, but the experts have said, “Do not do it.”
I refer to an article in the Canberra Weekly. Katy Gallagher, if she wants, can tell us that Ross Solly has not got the story right, but clearly when you read the article you see that there has been a degree of communication between the Chief Minister and Ross Solly in the production of this article. It states:
Early last week, when the proverbial was hitting the fan in the Chief Minister’s office over the ACTEW salary fiasco, Katy Gallagher went missing.
It caused no end of consternation within her office. It was a Monday, and as far as everyone was concerned it was a normal workday. Except the boss was AWOL.
And then, mid-afternoon, a Tweet turned up on the Chief Minister’s account: ‘Spent day in Sydney visiting Royal North Shore hospital’s new ED with purpose-built paediatric area. Will help to plan #canberra ED changes’.
Her staff might have been surprised; ACT Health bureaucrats were stunned … This had to be bad.
And they had every right to be worried. After repeatedly telling Ms Gallagher a purpose-built paediatric unit would not be a good fit for Canberra Hospital, and would not work, the Chief Minister decided to check one out for herself.
It speaks volumes for the relationship between the CM and her bureaucrats that she needed to pull off such a clandestine operation, but in her own words—‘I needed to see for myself. I needed to see if it really couldn’t be done.” … Ms Gallagher took the first step toward implementing her plan by promising a dedicated paediatric emergency service during last year’s election.
To say this surprised her bureaucrats is something of an understatement. They had no idea such a unit was still on their boss’s radar.
But it is, and after going rogue last week the Chief Minister sounds determined to see it through.
There may be some merit to what has been proposed but my concern is that when we were seeking advice, when we were finding out about the proposal that was being put forward and gave it our support, we were unaware that officials were advising against it.
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