Page 1133 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (11.57): I endorse totally the comments made by Mr Kaine on this issue. It was difficult to separate the issue of the VMOs dispute and VMOs' levels of payment from the actual methods of payment and the paperwork done at the hospital, but I think the committee did everything in its power to achieve that. During the public hearings we limited ourselves quite definitely to questions along those lines. To expand our inquiry after the public hearings into something broader would have been unfair.
I was interested in Ms Ellis's comments about fraud both in the area of booking fees and in terms of the 1,000 admissions. As I understand it, the Auditor-General found absolutely no evidence at all of fraud. In fact, he suggested that there was every chance that the abnormalities involved could easily have been due just to very bad record keeping. I do not think anybody disagrees that booking fees are unacceptable. The AMA itself suggests that booking fees just are not professional and should have no place at all in the hospital. In fact, we could not find anybody who would come forward and, even off the record, tell us that they had been charged a booking fee. I think it is a bit unfair to use this forum - or any other, for that matter - to suggest that such fees have been charged in recent times by anybody in the hospital system.
Mr Berry: It is on the record in this place.
MRS CARNELL: You mean that you said it, yes.
Mr Berry: No; there is a statutory declaration.
MRS CARNELL: I think that what we are talking about is booking fees having been charged in recent times. But certainly it was good to see the AMA come out and say that, yes, they agreed that booking fees do not have a place and should not now or in the future. Everybody in the committee certainly agreed on that, and I am sure that the Government and the Opposition agree as well. I hope that the Government picks up on all the recommendations in the report. They will improve the running of the hospital, and I believe that the AMA, the doctors and everyone involved would agree.
MRS GRASSBY (12.00): I would also like to thank the committee members and the chairman. I do not altogether agree with Mr Kaine on all points. I think that the cost of VMOs did come up during the hearing leading to this report. It was at a public hearing where VMOs were present to talk about costs. If I remember rightly - and I did not get the papers to look at this - one cost the Government had to pay was $396,000 a year. I also remember one of the doctors telling me at this public hearing that you had to pay for good health services and that if you paid well you got good health services. Of course, I disagree with that. When I was a nurse many years ago, some of the best medical practitioners I ever worked with used to put beside their accounts "FLGP". It took me years to learn that it meant "for the love of God patients", meaning that the doctors were never going to get paid for them. So I do not agree with that statement.
When we discussed ACTEW and ACTION buses and overpayments made to people, I thought it was a little unfair that blue-collar workers should be criticised for what they were paid when for the doctors it was entirely different. I felt that that should have been part of the report; however, we came to an agreement that that would not be in
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