Page 2933 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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last week or so there were five or six hospitals in Victoria that have refused to accept patients by ambulance, because they are busy. That is why hospitals have operational plans, in order to manage pressure when pressure comes.
In terms of the hospital, it is very busy at Canberra Hospital. It is not as busy at Calvary hospital. So that is interesting. People are travelling right across Canberra to Canberra Hospital to be seen, and that is something that we need to continue to work on with Calvary to help take some of the pressure off Canberra Hospital. But it is interesting to note that when Labor came to government there were 670 beds in our public hospital system. There are now 1,048 beds in the hospital system. It has grown at a much faster rate than population growth, and we will continue to grow the bed numbers, and continue to focus on all the changes that need to happen across the hospital to ensure that at times of peak pressure the hospital can manage and at other times that the hospital resources are used efficiently.
MR HANSON: Minister, has the data doctoring scandal of 2012 contributed to this crisis?
MS GALLAGHER: As Mr Hanson knows, it has had absolutely nothing to do with the bed pressure or the activity pressure that is being experienced at Canberra Hospital. There is no crisis, despite Mr Hanson’s claim.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Lawder.
MS LAWDER: Minister, do you accept responsibility for the current situation at the Canberra Hospital, of the director-general urging Canberrans to use alternative services?
MS GALLAGHER: Absolutely I do. In fact, Dr Brown and I discussed, and discuss on a weekly basis, the steps that need to be taken to manage the hospital when there are times of acute pressure. Those plans—those operational plans, all of the protocols that are in place—have worked very efficiently this week to take pressure off in certain areas of the hospital when that pressure has become too great.
This is a highly coordinated and planned response to levels of activity that cannot be predicted. It goes to the credit of all who work in the hospital, and all of those behind the scenes that do all the planning and kick those plans into operation when they come, that they are all working as efficiently and effectively as they can.
I will say that we will continue to work with the north-side hospital, Calvary hospital, because they are not experiencing the pressure that Canberra Hospital is under. But people do travel to Canberra Hospital to get treated, and that is something that we need to manage—and encourage people on the north side of Canberra to use the north-side hospital.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, what effect will the walk-in centres have on this hospital pressure?
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