Page 177 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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MR BERRY: When you ask for questions to be asked on your behalf, Mrs Carnell, you ought not to ask for questions to be asked that cause you trouble in the answering. Your babbling just slows down the response. Mr Westende, it is clear, has been taking instructions from Mrs Carnell, because he does not understand the issue. You do not take beds as a measure of hospital performance. You have to look at average length of stay, for example, which is important, and that has been falling over the years.
Mr De Domenico: If you cannot get in you cannot stay.
MR BERRY: There are always services available for emergency care within the hospital system and, as everybody in the ACT knows, there is no question about the provision of emergency care.
Mrs Carnell: But that is all you can get. Doctors have to send people to emergency to get them in for surgery.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: In any modern hospital system, Madam Speaker, emergency care and the use of facilities within the system is supplemented by elective procedures. Mrs Carnell knows that. We have said that for the year 50,500 people was the target. That was pre the doctors strike which, of course, lost a lot of productivity within the hospital system.
Mr Humphries: And saved you lots of money, too.
MR BERRY: Millions of dollars worth of productivity was lost as a result of that and the money, therefore, has been spent. I do not have the money tree at the bottom of the garden with the fairies dancing under it, as Mrs Carnell would wish for. That is the presentation that Mrs Carnell makes. The fact of the matter is that we have a target to work towards this year. It will be less than was first announced because of the money that was wasted by the doctors strike. Those are the facts of the matter. In any hospital system the number of beds which are available from time to time is regulated to make sure that you live within those targets. That is efficient management. Everybody knows that. At the end of the process, Madam Speaker, there will be that target which we said we - - -
Members interjected.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! I would like to remind members of standing order 61, which says that a member may not interrupt another member. Would you please keep that in mind. Mr Berry, please proceed.
MR BERRY: Thank you. Madam Speaker, the number of beds is, of course, changed from time to time. There are agreed slow down periods. As the average length of stay falls the number - - -
Mr Humphries: Agreed with whom?
MR BERRY: With the medical profession and other professions. That will continue to be the case. We are running an efficient hospital system here in the ACT. We are doing it the best way we can with the dollars that are available to us.
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