Page 3298 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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Mr Kaine: You have not done so well so far and you have been there three years.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: We will give you lesson one in a minute. It has taken a long time to get Mrs Carnell to try to understand how we measure hospital performance. Last year we were able to treat 5 per cent more people than we would otherwise have treated. So you can measure performance by the number of people who were admitted. At the same time there was an increase of about 9 per cent in service in the outpatients area, so you can say that that also is a measure of how the hospital is performing. We know and understand from the PAC's inquiry that the way we manage our finances is far better than ever before. That is a measure of how the hospital is performing. They are all important measures. We have also a falling length of stay, which is also a measure of how a hospital is performing. Our lengths of stay are falling, so it is performing better. We also are using fewer beds to provide those additional services, so we are more efficient. That is an important measure of how a hospital is performing.
In relation to waiting lists, it has been said by experts across this country and in other countries that increasing performance within the hospital system and increasing admissions does not necessarily mean that waiting lists will fall. We can say that the hospital system in the ACT is performing well. It is being managed well and the people of the ACT can be confident in their hospital system. They can be confident that it is delivering first-class care to the community. At the same time, like the rest of Australia, we have been suffering some difficulty with waiting lists. The problem is that you can always use waiting lists to create a bit of hyperbole out there in the community, a bit of misinformation. That raises the question of whether this is a deliberate campaign of disinformation, or is it just incompetence by Mrs Carnell?
One other thing that you can draw from the information that I gave you in answer to a question a little while ago is that around half the people - half of the entire waiting list - are waiting less than three months. That is a good measure of performance. So the hospital - - -
Mr Humphries: Not if you are in pain, it is not.
MR BERRY: These are elective patients.
Mrs Carnell: And 13 per cent have been waiting more than 12 months.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The Minister is answering the question.
MR BERRY: Thirteen per cent have been waiting more than 12 months, and that depends on a range of factors which Mrs Carnell tends to try to hide. Let us come back to the growth in waiting lists. It is a problem that has existed right across this country. No other State provides the level of information that is provided here in the ACT, and the Labor Government, for one, provides accurate information. I took on notice at the Estimates Committee a question in relation to waiting lists. We are providing some more information and this is to complete the information which is provided by the public hospital system. It is not provided anywhere else in the country, but it is provided here in the ACT.
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