Page 2739 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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have a plan, the people of the ACT will have every right to treat those statements with the contempt that such rhetoric deserves. If we reduced the ACT to the national efficient price we would be able to generate huge savings that could be reinvested in our health system. We would be able to reduce waiting times for elective surgery and in the emergency department.
I am sure people in the ACT who are suffering cancer are another group who suffer more than they should because of the care provided under this Labor-Greens government. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recently released statistics showing that Canberrans faced the longest waits in the country to start cancer treatments and, furthermore, the waiting times to start cancer treatments have blown out significantly in recent years. The average time for 90 per cent of patients to start treatment in 2017-18 was 28 days. In 2016-17 it was half that, at 14 days. Fourteen days for a cancer patient can be a long time.
The government is blaming outdated equipment for such problems. One outdated linear accelerator was decommissioned in February and a new machine was to be installed or come online next month. I wonder why it has taken seven months to replace this machine. Didn’t the government know it was nearing the end of its useful life? Didn’t it plan for a replacement machine sooner? And why was the new machine not ready to be installed when the old one was decommissioned?
Why is it that money drives health service delivery in the ACT and not the needs of patients? The cost of delaying cancer treatment can be death or poor quality of life for patients or delay in returning to work.
Why is this Labor-Greens government unable to manage its assets? Why does this government have to wait for expensive independent reports to tell it that its assets register and maintenance program are inappropriate and that it should have had a better asset management and maintenance program long before it did?
Calvary Public Hospital is a prime example where we see a declining asset. In late May we learnt through documents obtained under freedom of information that 61 per cent of the assets at Calvary Public Hospital are nearing the end of their useful life. There was money in the budget for some upgrades to Calvary Public Hospital Bruce but nothing to address the issue of the chronically ageing infrastructure at the hospital.
Documents that the opposition obtained last year show that the intensive care unit at the Canberra Hospital needed an urgent and immediate increase in capacity because it was projected to be full by as early as October this year. That is two months away. (Time expired.)
In accordance with the agreement between the whips, I seek leave to conclude my comments. It is extensive but, in accordance with the agreement, I seek leave to move to continue my comments.
Leave granted.
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