Page 3521 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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This is the only category in which we are achieving above target; there has been a small improvement, from 82 per cent to 83 per cent.
We are seeing a complete failure of the emergency department waiting time processes. I am sure the minister will stand up and say, “It is all about the flu season.” The government spends every year preparing for the flu season and every year uses the flu season as an excuse for not meetings its targets. The government had a winter bed strategy for the Canberra Hospital which came into place on 11 July. The problem was that the flu outbreak for this year was not prepared to wait until 11 July; it had started to really ramp up by early May. The government did not have the capacity or the willingness—I do not know which—to bring forward its winter bed strategy to correspond with the peaking of the flu season.
The problems with our hospital system are not the fault of the hardworking doctors, nurses and allied health staff who man the hospital.
Ms Stephen-Smith: “Staff” would be better.
MRS DUNNE: I am not going to be told by this politically correct failure of a minister what terminology I will use. The people who man the hospital, day in and day out, need more respect than virtue-signalling from this minister. This failed minister only has a capacity to nitpick, in the same way she took time on one occasion to nitpick that Mr Milligan did not use “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander” but used “Indigenous” instead. She chipped him. When you go back and look at the record, this minister uses the word “Indigenous” as frequently as she uses the words “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander”.
This minister is a failed minister. She has failed in her previous portfolios; she has no capacity to grasp the importance of her portfolio; and when you challenge her, she either snipes or laughs inappropriately. She only has two responses. The other response should be a shame-faced, crestfallen apology to the people of the ACT. This government failed to prepare properly for the flu season. This government has failed to do anything comprehensive or constructive about infrastructure.
It was interesting to look at the Australian Medical Association hospital health report card that came out, I think, last week. It contains graphs on performance and timeliness of treatment in category 3, the urgent category. In 2002-03, just after the Canberra Liberals were in government, approximately 75 per cent of patients were seen on time in this category. By 2017-18, only 37 per cent of people in this category were seen on time. This figure has halved in 15 years. The minister has advised that the number has fallen to 32 per cent in 2018-19. The published figures are 37 per cent, but the unpublished figure, coming from the minister herself, is shown to have fallen even further. The figures will not get any better this year. This is why you cannot trust the Barr government on health.
At the weekend, the president of the AMA, Dr Di Dio, commented on the poor performance of the ACT health system. He said:
The usual reasons are apparent—insufficient inpatient beds to get patients out of the emergency department and into the hospital … Significant parts of Canberra Hospital are overdue for replacement and an expansion of capacity is needed.
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