Page 2009 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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Government Service Senior Officers - Transport Allowance
MS FOLLETT: Mr Moore asked me a question without notice on 9 April. Madam Speaker, could I firstly apologise for the delay in getting a reply to Mr Moore. His question related to incentives being considered for the use of public transport by senior officers in the ACT Government Service. It is a lengthy answer, Madam Speaker, which I would ask to have incorporated in Hansard.
Leave granted.
Document incorporated at Appendix 1.
MS FOLLETT: To paraphrase it, our ACT public servants are employed under the Commonwealth Public Service Act, and their terms and conditions are the same as those offered by the Commonwealth. At present there are no incentives offered for the use of public transport, but the current menu of allowances will be reviewed after it has been operating for 12 months and at that time incentives for the use of public transport will be considered.
Hospital Bed Numbers
MR BERRY: During the last sitting Mr Humphries asked me a question in relation to the number of beds in the public hospital system. Before I provide statistical data I would like to make a point clear for the Assembly. The concept, as Mr Humphries would know, that the physical number of available beds gives a true indication of a hospital's performance is a fallacy. They all know that. Mr Humphries knows that himself as it was one of the conclusions of the Select Committee on Hospital Bed Numbers that he instigated. So let us not have any more fusses about the number of beds.
One of the more significant measures of a hospital's performance is patient throughput. The activity level in July was up 2.7 per cent on the same month last year. The average for July was 819. That is a 2.7 per cent increase in throughput in the hospital system.
Mr Humphries: But fewer beds.
MR BERRY: Even Mr Humphries agrees that that is a more reliable indicator of hospital performance than the number of beds.
Mrs Carnell: That is why the nurses are complaining.
MR BERRY: Of course, a phoney approach has been taken by his colleague Mrs Carnell, who presents herself as the health spokesman for the Liberals.
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