Page 3933 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
This is not as difficult as it may seem. The Citizens Advice Bureau is operating a somewhat similar system now in relation to activities such as fetes and various public activities that occur here in the ACT. It is something that I have strongly advocated over the years, and I am pleased to see that the CAB is doing this. It obviously avoids the problems of, say, three schools in the same catchment finding that they have a fete on the same day. It does allow for a bit of planning. I suggest that it would not be too difficult for this Assembly to set up some sort of public register of interests so that people could be advised when something came before us. I agree that, under those terms, we would not always catch everybody. There could also be a time delay in relation to advising people, and they in turn would have to get back to us. Never mind; the fact is that it is an improvement on the existing situation.
We are also assisted by our own notice paper in allowing people sufficient time to comment. I draw the attention of members to today's notice paper. Under "Executive Business" there are 22 orders of the day listed. Eighteen of those 22 orders of the day have been on this paper for longer than two months.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! It being 12.30 pm, the debate is interrupted, in accordance with standing order 77, as amended by temporary order.
Sitting suspended from 12.30 to 2.30 pm
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Woden Valley Hospital - Bed Numbers
MRS CARNELL: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister for Health and emergency parking. I refer the Minister to an article in the Canberra Times of 28 April this year in which he stated:
Around Australia, the message you get from every health administrator is, we treat people, not beds.
I draw Mr Connolly's attention to the fact that, for the first three months of 1994-95, there has been a reduction of 3.7 per cent, or 439, in admissions at Woden Valley Hospital, compared to the September quarter of 1993. Minister, why is the hospital seeing fewer patients? Do you now admit that a large part of the problem is the shortage of available hospital beds, given that there was an average of 569 available beds in the last quarter compared to 621 available beds 12 months ago?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, they are back at it. Apart from their trivial little attempts at humour, they are back at furiously counting beds. As we have said, as other State Ministers, often Liberals, have said and as, I think you will find, independent commentators say, counting beds is a futile approach to looking at health. You look at overall throughput. It is true that in the first quarter we are down a couple of percentage points. I am told that there is a range of reasons for that, including, as is well known, a quite nasty outbreak of paediatric viral infection this year. That meant that we cancelled a lot of paediatric surgery.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .