Page 3154 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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It is also not true, as the opposition claimed last week, that an ambulance bypass is the same thing as emergency being closed. People can turn up at emergency under their own steam and they will be seen. The emergency department was not closed, is not closed and does not close, as those opposite claimed.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, why wasn’t there, as a matter of course, a public announcement that the hospital was on bypass on 20 May, 1 July and 14 August?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: This is an internal arrangement with the ambulance service. As I have stated, the public can turn up to the emergency department because it was not closed, is not closed and does not close to people who turn up under their own steam.
Mrs Dunne: A point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat, minister. A point of order?
Mrs Dunne: It is on relevance. The question was direct: why wasn’t there, as a matter of course, an announcement? I would ask you to ask the minister to be directly relevant to the question.
MADAM SPEAKER: In the time you have left, you may come to that.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I believe that I answered the question, Madam Speaker, but I would also note that Canberra Health Services did make an announcement on its Facebook page that overnight the hospital experienced a large increase in demand through the emergency department. They thanked all staff for working extremely hard to ensure that patients were cared for in the most clinically appropriate place, and asked people to remember that the emergency department is for genuine emergencies. They also provided information for people who required non-urgent medical help: that there are a range of other accessible services near them that do not involve a trip to hospital.
MR COE: Minister, on how many days between 1 May and today have patients been accommodated on trolleys in corridors at the hospital and how many corridor trolleys are there?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Obviously I will have to take that question on notice.
Canberra Hospital—emergency department bypass
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, who is responsible for deciding to place a public hospital onto ambulance bypass and who is responsible for deciding to lift the bypass status?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Hanson for the question. My understanding is that it would be the CEO of Canberra Health Services. I will confirm that but, as I have stated before and I will repeat for the benefit of the Assembly, it is not
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