Page 3104 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 1994
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MR CONNOLLY: No; you silly, silly person, Mrs Carnell. The shallowness of your analysis of health is breathtaking. Those staff have been working under very difficult conditions; nonetheless, last year they were given three-year full accreditation by the Australian Council on Health Care Standards for the level of professional work they have provided at Woden. The medicine has been good; but the public perception, I have to say, has been pretty poor, and understandably so. It has been a building site; it has been chaotic.
A good example has been the way we treat heart patients. Canberra has always had at Woden Valley Hospital the coronary care unit separated from the cardiac outpatients unit. In recent years the cardiac outpatients unit has been in a demountable. That has meant, from the perception of members of the public, that you see your GP; you are told that there could be a problem with your heart, which to most is news that is pretty worrying; you are referred to a specialist at Woden Valley Hospital - - -
Mrs Carnell: And then they say, "Off to Sydney".
MR CONNOLLY: No. Just be quiet, you silly, silly person. You are referred to Woden Valley Hospital to see one of our specialist cardiologists; so, you go there with some confidence that you will see a good specialist, as indeed you will, because our cardiac specialists at Woden are very highly qualified people. For the last couple of years you have been then directed out through to the back of the car parks to demountable buildings which have been where the cardiac tests have been done, where your ECGs and so forth have been done.
Mr De Domenico: Then it is off to the airport.
MR CONNOLLY: No. Then it is off to the coronary care unit in many cases. If surgery is required, it is probably off to one of the great hospitals in Sydney like St Vincent's. That will be addressed. Again, it is "Promise them more" Kate saying, "You can have it; fix it tomorrow; the magic wand is working overtime; fix it all and spend $30m less". Why did I not think of fixing every problem and saving $30m? Silly me, silly me!
Madam Speaker, that was the situation until Friday - a situation that, I have to acknowledge, is not something that is going to inspire a lot of confidence, with people wandering around in demountable buildings. That has been fixed. We have now opened a coronary care and cardiac ward, which was described by the director of that unit, a very senior doctor, as one of the best in the country. "One of the best in the country", is what he said. But Mrs Carnell does not seem to worry or know about that. The patients who are coming into the cardiac unit for testing are, as Ms Follett said, outpatients. We could have put them in beds if we had wanted to. Since they do not particularly want to be in beds, because they are outpatients, that would seem a silly thing to do. Again we have facile and shallow statements from the Opposition.
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