Page 1336 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is the case that ear, nose and throat specialists and outpatient appointments are a particular concern and difficulty in the ACT. Canberra Health Services are currently doing a lot of work to better understand their outpatient wait list, to ensure that people can be placed on a more appropriate path. This would be the case with category 3 patients, where there is a very long wait and there are a very large number of people who are waiting. That is part of the ongoing work that Canberra Health Services has been doing—a lot of deep diving into those outpatient lists, particularly where there are long waits—as to both how those can be addressed for those people who need an appointment and treatment and how more appropriate patient pathways can be established for people for whom that appointment may not be the most appropriate pathway.
MR COE: Minister, what assessments has the government done of the long-term and population-wide health impact of the government’s inability to ensure that there are enough specialists in the ACT to service the community?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Coe for the question. There is a lot of ongoing health planning work that is always underway. One of those is the ACT territory-wide clinical services plan, which has been underway for some time. I will take Mr Coe’s question on notice, because I want to go back and have a look at the Hansard and the question itself and make sure that we can provide the detail that responds to the question that he has asked.
MR WALL: Minister, why has the government reneged on its prior commitments to publish waiting time data on seeing specialists? What is currently the wait time for a patient to have a procedure performed, should they require it, after being able to see a specialist?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Wall for the supplementary question, but, as Mr Wall would be aware, wait times are quite significantly different, depending on the specialty and the treatment that people might require.
Mr Wall interjecting—
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Sorry?
MADAM SPEAKER: Do not respond.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I should not respond to the interjections, should I, Madam Speaker. I am not sure that we are going to be able to answer Mr Wall’s question in the form that he has asked it, but, again, I will take it on notice and come back to the Assembly with some more detail.
ACT Health—SPIRE project
MR WALL: My question is also to the Minister for Health. Minister, I refer to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that stated that the
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