Page 592 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Private Hospital Costs
MR CONNOLLY: My question is also addressed to the Minister for Health. What will the Minister do to compensate those members of the ACT community who are out of pocket because of private hospital costs incurred when they were turned away from the public hospital system?
MR HUMPHRIES: It has never been the practice of governments to compensate people for expenses incurred because they do not obtain services in the public hospital system. It was not the case while the Labor Party was in government and it will not be the case while this party is in government.
Mr Berry: We had plenty of beds.
MR HUMPHRIES: I can assure Mr Berry that there were certainly beds closed while he was Minister and there were certainly people turned away from time to time while he was Minister.
Mr Berry: We did not have 1,500 people waiting.
MR HUMPHRIES: That might be the case, but there were still people turned away, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: No, not "might"; it is. They are your figures.
MR HUMPHRIES: People were still turned away while you were Minister, and I suggest that you not press that point because I can prove that fact. Mr Speaker, I think there is a tendency, regrettably, to exaggerate the extent of incapacity on the part of the public hospital system to treat people. I reject completely the assertion that people in genuine emergency need are turned away from our public hospital system. I have not yet been confronted with such a case, and I sincerely hope that as Minister I never have to be confronted with such a case.
It is certainly the case, as the article in today's paper alleges and as others have alleged in the past, that from time to time people will arrive at hospital with a condition with varying degrees of seriousness attached to it for which they require or desire admission to the hospital but for which the hospital declines to provide it. Those situations are assessed on the basis of emergency need. If a person must be admitted - if the case does demand immediate admission - they will be admitted. They always are and they always will be.
Obviously, sometimes people are turned away and they feel that they ought not to have been turned away because they consider that their case deserved to be treated by the public hospital system. Obviously, in those circumstances people will feel badly about it, and they will complain to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .