Page 1518 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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The figures provided to the ABC under freedom of information show quite clearly that under this minister’s tutelage elective surgery and emergency department waiting times have got worse. On at least half a dozen occasions the minister came into this place and said quite the opposite.
If there was nothing else in this motion, this minister should resign because she sequentially and serially misled this Assembly about elective surgery waiting times and emergency access waiting times. That is enough in itself to have this minister resign in shame. She has significantly and consistently misled this Assembly and under the Westminster principles of democracy, that is when a minister resigns.
The Canberra Liberals are calling for the resignation of this minister today, not just because of that but also because of the serial failures that have gone on in the health department. Under a Westminster system—we sit here in a Westminster parliament—the buck stops with the minister.
It is not the director-general. It is not some head of nursing. It is not the head of the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. It is the minister for health who is responsible and who takes responsibility. When there are serial failings like the serial failings that we have seen in this health department, it is time for the minister to resign because she has failed in her mission.
When we look at the data, the data tells us that for the year to February 2018 44 per cent of presentations to the emergency department were seen on time. This is not a figure that is “heading in the right direction”. It is a figure heading in the wrong direction because we know that last year the equivalent measure was 61 per cent. We have fallen from 61 per cent to 44 per cent on the basis of the information provided under freedom of information by the Health Directorate to the ABC and published broadly over the last few weeks.
In relation to elective surgery waiting times, the same data showed for the same year to February 2017 that 102 patients were waiting for elective surgery for longer than the recommended time frames. But by February this year the figure was 278 who had waited longer than clinically advised.
This is hardly an indication of “heading in the right direction”. But the minister consistently said in this place on at least half a dozen occasions that we were “heading in the right direction”. Of course, she never gave us the figures to substantiate that, although they were called for on a number of occasions. But she consistently said time and again that we were “heading in the right direction”.
We also know that as at February 2017 there were just under 2,000 patients on the waiting list for elective surgery. For the year to February 2018 that figure has risen to more than 2,500 patients. Madam Speaker, that is not my impression of “heading in the right direction”. This is hardly an indication of any improvement in the health system at all. The minister has told this Assembly on multiple occasions that we are “heading in the right direction” but the government’s own data tells us that she misled us.
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