Page 3781 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 28 October 2015
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approached me about it, but you can understand why. That may reflect why the minister will not continue on as health minister in this place. It has been a dismal response to that issue.
Whilst we are spending $1.4 billion on our health system, one of the problems is that the hospitals themselves are the two most expensive hospitals in Australia to run. I support the level of expenditure in health, but we want to make sure that every cent is going into treating patients, hiring nurses and employing doctors and not, as it is now, into running the two most expensive hospitals. The average cost of care for an acute patient is way above—76 per cent higher—that of other metropolitan hospitals in Australia. The difference in costs per annum is literally tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
There have been reports in the media about concerns about poor food. There have been concerns that reports are being delivered late. We have had industrial action by doctors concerned about disputes. When I have spoken to some of those doctors they have raised concerns about an appalling level of miscommunication and lack of communication. When we asked the minister today, “When did you last meet with the AMA?” the answer seemed to be, “A long time ago.” With this crisis of management and culture in our system, the minister is pointing fingers at the AMA without having even met with them any time recently. It does not auger well for the suggestion that we have a minister here who is committed to fixing the problem.
We have seen the KPMG review and the articles around that in June this year. We have seen the data errors from the Auditor-General’s report that talked about $3 million lost. We have seen lost accreditation in urology, breaches of professional standards and so on and so on. My points are all ones that are publicly available. All I am really asking the minister to do is explain what is going on and outline his plan to fix it. I think that is pretty reasonable and I would be somewhat disappointed if the government did not think they could support this motion.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.10): I move the amendment to Mr Hanson’s motion circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes:
(a) the ACT Government delivers a high quality health care system and continues to prioritise improvements and the expansion of services and facilities;
(b) the ACT Government has invested more than $900 million in the Health Infrastructure Program that has delivered the Canberra Region Cancer Centre, the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, the Adult Mental Health Unit, the three community health centres and two walk-in centres as well as numerous projects that are either underway or in the planning phases, including the new University of Canberra Public Hospital, the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, the Secure Mental Health Unit and the Calvary car park;
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