Page 3399 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 11 October 1994
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Mr Humphries: How many at Calvary?
MR CONNOLLY: And 50 private beds at Calvary; giving a total number of private beds of 220. The total number of beds, public and private, was 1,007. In June 1991 we had 1,078 beds, public and private, although in June 1991 we did have more public beds; we had some 909. In June 1991 we had 430 beds at Woden Valley Hospital; and there were 288 at Royal Canberra Hospital, most of which have been put into packing cases and sent to Vietnam. The hospital is no more.
Mr Stefaniak, in his equally sly approach, asked whether I had misled, because there was a reduction in activity levels. He has tabled a vast sheaf of papers to prove his case. I guess that it depends on which figure you look at. If you look at the first lot of figures, for the month of August 1994, we had an increase in admissions - 4,014 in August 1994, as opposed to 3,975 in August 1993. There is a significant increase. If you look at year-to-date figures for the same category, it is down. If you look at the number of emergency admissions, it is up. They are all over the place. There are ups; there are downs.
The allegation was that I had misled about throughput.
Mr Humphries: What is the bottom line, Terry?
MR CONNOLLY: The bottom line is that we are doing significantly more day theatre operations; we are doing significantly more minor operations. You can pick any figure you like. The allegation is that I lied when I said that we had a lower throughput, which was basically what was behind the sort of grubby innuendo that was made. The reality is that, on Mr Stefaniak's documents, for the month of August - which, I think, was when I was making this statement - we had admitted 4,014 patients. In the month of August in the previous year we had admitted 3,975. Again, the Liberals are trying to build up - - -
Ms Ellis: It depends on your maths.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes; that is right. It means that we have admitted more in August this year than we did in August the previous year, which is directly contrary to what Mr Stefaniak was trying to allege. The Liberals are trying to build up some sort of case here, but you are building on straw because you are just building on innuendo. As I said, from the advice that I had received, my recollection was that I had been told in the last couple of days that the operative number at the moment was of the order of 580. The last piece of paper that I saw indicated 584.
I will have all of these allegations that you are making today very carefully looked at. Mrs Carnell says that I have been told wrongly; so Mrs Carnell is saying that the Health Department is misadvising me and that what they tell me about the number of beds is not accurate. That is a very serious allegation that Mrs Carnell is making, because she is suggesting that the information that the department is giving me is other than the truth. I will take Mrs Carnell's allegation seriously, and I will have it investigated. I would hope that we will both stand by the outcome when I report back on that.
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