Page 1468 - Week 05 - Thursday, 12 May 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Sitting suspended from 11.47 am to 2.30 pm
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Hospital Services - Interstate Patients
MRS CARNELL: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health.
Mr Berry: Straight off the press release.
Mr Connolly: That looks like a press release.
MRS CARNELL: No, that is the question. The Minister said yesterday in question time that the Medicare agreement was a good one for Canberra because we were paid at national metropolitan hospital levels, rather than the national average, for interstate patients we treated at Woden Valley Hospital. Mr Connolly said yesterday:
This was an issue that Mr Berry ... pursued with some vigour to ensure that we got the best deal for the ACT.
The Minister also claimed that cross-border payments gave the ACT a net benefit of about $25m. Due to the fact that Woden Valley Hospital has the highest cost per patient in Australia, is it not true that the ACT loses on average $600 for every out of State patient who is admitted to Woden Valley Hospital? Because 25 per cent or about 12,000 admissions come from outside the ACT each year, is it not a fact, Minister, that your great deal actually is costing Canberrans about $7m a year?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, really, these people! Taking Mrs Carnell's logic one step further, it probably does cost us about $600 for everybody admitted to Woden Valley Hospital, so let us shut the hospital. Let us not treat anybody. We will save lots of money. What a good idea, Mrs Carnell! I wish I had thought of that myself.
What I said yesterday was that we had secured, as a result of my predecessor's efforts, a better deal with New South Wales than we have secured with other States, or that other States have secured vis-a-vis one another. Unusually, unlike every other State in its dealings with another one, New South Wales has accepted that we are essentially a metropolitan hospital because of the intensive nature of the treatment provided.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .