Page 2029 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991

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MR SPEAKER: Please proceed to the question, Chief Minister.

MR KAINE: I am trying to, but he is interjecting and he wants to debate the question.

Mr Connolly: He asked me whether I wanted a debate. I said that I do.

MR SPEAKER: I recognise the interjection. Please proceed, Chief Minister.

MR KAINE: First of all, I told you what the projections were, based on past history. Secondly, I told you - - -

Mr Connolly: This is how you work out the hospital budget too, no doubt.

MR KAINE: Do you want to get back into the debate again?

MR SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Connolly: Yes, I do.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Members, let us have questions and answers through the Chair, please.

MR KAINE: My apologies, Mr Speaker. Secondly, I told you that what we are talking about over the next 10 years is not lease renewals but lease extensions; they are two different things entirely. There is nothing to suggest that the next 10 years will see any change as compared to what has happened in the last five, because they are lease extensions, not lease renewals. The tenure of current commercial leases is such that there will be very few, if any, lease renewals of a commercial nature coming up inside about 30 years from now.

Hospital Services

MS MAHER: My question is to the Minister for Health. Given the Minister's reference to waiting lists and available hospital beds as poor indicators of the level of service, can the Minister advise as to what measures should be used?

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Ms Maher for that question. It is a very good one because of the debate that has been generated in recent months on this question, not just in the ACT but across the country. I would like to table for the benefit of the Assembly some papers which were made available and released through the Australian Health Ministers Conference. They clearly show that there is a very strong argument about the relevance of hospital bed numbers as indicators of the efficiency level of services within hospital systems in this country at the present time.


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