Page 1993 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020

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Omit paragraphs (2) and (3), substitute:

“(2) further notes that:

(a) the ACT Government has made substantial investments to deliver significant increases in elective surgeries, with admissions growing at twice the national average between 2014-15 and 2018-19;

(b) this resulted in a reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting list between 2014-15 and 2018-19 and an improvement in ‘seen on time’ performance for Category 1 and 2 surgeries;

(d) ACT hospitals were on track to deliver 14 250 public elective surgeries in 2019-20, prior to the suspension of non-urgent elective surgery due to the COVID-19 emergency; and

(e) more than 16 000 elective surgeries are planned for 2020-21 following the allocation of an additional $20 million to address the impacts of the COVID-19 elective surgery suspension; and

(3) calls on the ACT Government to continue investing to deliver growth in elective surgeries and improvement in performance against clinically recommended timeframes.”.

I thank Mrs Dunne for bringing forward this motion. Elective surgery, as she said, is very important. It is a very important part of our health system, and that is why we have been so committed to delivering record numbers of elective surgeries. That is why last year the public elective surgery list delivered more than 14,000 elective surgeries; and this year, prior to COVID-19, we were on track to deliver 14,250 elective surgeries.

Indeed, even at the end of quarter 3 in 2019-20, for category 1 surgeries we were 1.2 per cent ahead of where we were in the same quarter in 2018-19, and for category 2 we were 2.6 per cent ahead of where we were in the same quarter in 2018-19. Mrs Dunne made the point that quarter 3 was only somewhat affected by COVID-19, but it was affected by COVID-19. Many elective surgeries are performed every week across our public health system, so the impact of COVID-19 was real, and it has been real for quarter 4, obviously, and we have not achieved the target for elective surgeries that we set ourselves for 2019-20.

If Mrs Dunne kept more up to date with numbers, she would know that in fact the shortfall was closer to 1,750 elective surgeries than the 2,250 we had originally estimated would be the case. We have now committed an additional $30 million to deliver additional elective surgeries, outpatient appointments and a range of other things, to catch up; and, as Mrs Dunne indicated, more than $20 million to deliver an extra 2,000 elective surgeries in 2019-20. We will deliver more than 16,000 elective surgeries in 2019-20, all things being equal, assuming that we do not have to pull back again as a result of a resurgence of COVID-19.

Mrs Dunne also criticised the strategy of using our private hospitals to deliver some of our elective surgeries, as if it is not a deliberate thing. In fact, I know a number of

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