Page 4560 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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There was a minor error picked up by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee in its report No. 22 of 1993, which noted that the words "a person" would have appeared twice in paragraph 5(c) of the Bill, and that there was an incorrect cross-referencing to subsection 19(1) when it should have been subsection 18(1). I can advise the Assembly that the Assistant Parliamentary Counsel wrote to the Clerk on 7 December pointing this out, and it will be dealt with, pursuant to standing order 191, as a typographical error. That is a simpler process than having to bring in amendments to Bills to correct minor errors. I thank the Assembly for its support.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
HEALTH COMPLAINTS BILL 1993
[COGNATE BILL:
OMBUDSMAN (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1993]
Debate resumed from 25 November 1993, on motion by Mr Berry:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1993? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 4 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 5.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (8.07): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise to speak on this Bill. It is a Bill that I wholeheartedly support in essence. The Bill goes a long way to rectifying a difference in power between health providers and health consumers. As a health provider in another life, I can say that one of the great problems that you see is the fact that the consumer really is, to a large extent, at the mercy of a doctor, a hospital, a pharmacist, a nurse, a dentist or whatever we are talking about. It is particularly important that we have in place mechanisms to make sure that the consumer actually has some power in this relationship.
This Bill sets up or establishes the position of a Commissioner for Health Complaints to receive complaints over a wide range of areas, in both public and private health services. The Commissioner for Health Complaints is a statutory officer, totally independent from ACT Health, and is obliged to act impartially in the public interest and to observe the principles of natural justice - something
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