Page 2482 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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Heart Patients
MR STEVENSON: My question is to Mr Connolly in his capacity as Health Minister. It concerns the extra costs that result from heart patients going outside Canberra for treatment. First of all, how many have there been? What is the cost of subsiding travel, and what other costs are incurred because we do not treat heart patients in Canberra?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Stevenson for his question and his courtesy in indicating that he is interested in this area. Heart surgery is something that we currently do not do in the ACT. We do it in New South Wales. I was intrigued to see Mrs Carnell making a statement yesterday demanding that we contract out health services to New South Wales; that that is the way to go. The one area of health services that we have traditionally contracted out to New South Wales, and still do contract out to New South Wales, is cardio-thoracic surgery, which is what Mrs Carnell is consistently saying we should be doing ourselves. While she wants us to not duplicate services in the ACT and contract out, in the one area where we do not do the service and contract out, she wants us not to contract out but to do the service; but that is just Mrs Carnell. Mr Stevenson asked a - - -
Mr Stevenson: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. We are short on time. Would the Minister be good enough to answer my question about a very important matter which is of grave concern to a lot of people in Canberra?
MR CONNOLLY: Indeed, Mr Stevenson asked a very valid question. In 1992-93 there were 131 ACT residents who went to Sydney for surgery. That is significant because the report that I believe some members have asked for and that I am able to make available indicated that the threshold for a valid cardio-thoracic unit is 300. Only 131 ACT residents went to Sydney, although some 200 New South Wales residents from the south-east - that is very broadly defined - also went to Sydney. From the ACT it was 131. The cost to the ACT under the Medicare cross-border arrangements for those 131 people was $1.2m or thereabouts. Other associated costs, which included ambulance costs and some patient and family subsidisation to get relatives up to Sydney, came to of the order of $110,000 for those 131. So all up, for 131 patients, it cost about $1.31m.
Government Service - Appointments
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, on 22 March 1993, in a letter to the professional division of the Public Sector Union about selection processes at the department secretary, agency head and senior executive levels in the ACT Government Service, you said:
My government has committed itself to fairness and equity in personnel administration and so has decided to require a merit selection process for all such appointments.
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