Page 2825 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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blowout in cost. (Second speaking period taken.) It is unclear whether the blowout in cost in the switchboard will have an adverse impact on the current appropriation for UMAHA. We know that there is a stage 2 of UMAHA but we do not know what the cost of that will be.
The minister talked about SPIRE, because there are changes in the budget allocation for the SPIRE program. We have to remember that SPIRE was a “me too” promise where the Labor government had to play catch-up in the 2016 election. The minister used the word “progress” in her speech about SPIRE, saying that there was progress on the issue. But we know that that progress is actually slowing down and we will not see the completion of SPIRE until 2023 or maybe even 2024, which is well into the next term. We are told that it will take a lot of planning, and perhaps it will. But we also know that the government’s first financial priority is to build the tram.
The minister also talked about the election promise on the expansion of the Centenary hospital. That, of course, was also promised in the election process. But we know that that is another con and that we will not see the completion of the work on the women’s and children’s hospital, including the adolescent mental health unit, until 2021-22.
We have a maternity department in which staff are under, to quote from the Hansard of the estimates, “unrelenting pressure”. That pressure has got so great that it has resulted in an open letter from the staff talking about their plight. And what was the ACT government’s first response? It was to release a letter saying that there was nothing to see here. If that is not bullying, I do not know what is.
We have continually worsening emergency department and elective surgery waiting times, but the minister keeps telling us they are trending in the right direction. However, I think that since the budget has come down the minister has stopped saying that, because the figures in the budget have put the lie to the assertion that the figures are trending in the right direction.
We have the continuation of the data scandal that began under Minister Gallagher. A review was done, and a report was given to the minister in March. It was supposed to be finalised and presented to the Assembly in April. But then, seemingly as an afterthought or perhaps as a tactic to delay and change the report, it was decided that there should be staff consultation. We are still waiting for the report and we are waiting for the data.
The hospital failed its accreditation in March. The medical imaging department’s training accreditation was also significantly downgraded in March from a 25-year-long reign as an A-grade department to a D-grade department.
The Chief Minister unilaterally decided to restructure the Health Directorate last March. This was based on a submission from the Head of Service, made to the Chief Minister, which stated that there was no internal or external consultation. Treasury, much less anyone else, was not consulted. Cabinet was not consulted. We will have a back-to-the-future exercise, after a similar structure in the ACT was abandoned some years ago. The hospital will be answerable to the policy arm, whose focus will be on
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