Page 4296 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 1993
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they can go to Phillip and see him. As far as the CMP program is concerned, I endorse it, no matter where it is. Whether it is at Phillip or Narrabundah or Melba, I endorse it, and I will continue to endorse it. The Liberals, though it might grieve them, can sit back and grizzle, because I will continue to endorse a CMP program right across the ACT.
Narrabundah Health Centre
MR CORNWELL: My question to Mr Berry is also in relation to this matter of the Narrabundah Health Centre. In relation to the decision not to accept any new patients at Narrabundah because of budget cutbacks and a reduction in the number of doctors, and the fact that Narrabundah Health Centre patients cannot go to Phillip for treatment by the doctor there because it is out of the area, as we have been trying to tell you for the last 15 or 20 minutes, I ask: Why were these cutbacks, which directly impact upon patient care, not identified in a generic list of savings you provided to the Estimates Committee in September, which, as you will recall, was only a couple of months ago?
MR BERRY: I can tell you now that a doctor has gone on leave and will be paid for some of it. For any part of it where he is absent and another doctor takes his place, it will still cost. I cannot see that there are going to be any savings. That is why it did not appear on the generic list. Let me say this to you, so that you can all be very clear: Yes, I intervened. I said, "There is not going to be a cutback in CMP numbers in the ACT", loud and clear.
Mrs Carnell: So why is there?
MR BERRY: There is one on leave. Even doctors are allowed to go on leave, and when they go on leave you still have to pay. It is not as simple as that. You are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. I have said that the CMP service is safe, and it will remain safe under Labor. Under the Liberals, it would not.
MR CORNWELL: I put a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Can the Minister for Health confirm that people at the Narrabundah Health Centre who wish to attend the Phillip Health Centre to see this transferred doctor can do so? Will you give this Assembly a categoric undertaking that this is possible?
MR BERRY: No, not if his book is full. He cannot see any more people than he is capable of seeing, for heaven's sake. The CMPs are in high demand because the community want to see them.
Mrs Carnell: So they cannot see the person at Phillip after all?
MR BERRY: No, not everybody can go and see him. That is why there are other doctors. That is why the others set up in practice.
Mrs Carnell: If Narrabundah is full and they cannot see the one at Phillip, where are they going?
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