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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 331 ..
MRS CARNELL: Mr Osborne, the same way as nursing education is carried out at all other hospitals that have triple-eight rosters. There is not no overlap. The overlap is still an hour at midday. It varies between different parts of the hospital. There are still half-an-hour or quarter-of-an-hour overlaps, depending on the ward, at other times of the day. Certainly, there is a capacity. We are currently negotiating, when people are willing to negotiate, with the ANF on how those sorts of issues will be addressed under the new arrangements. It is simply wrong to say that a triple-eight roster means no overlap. It does not mean that at all. That would be the case if it were just 8 by 8 by 8. The reality is that there are 12 different shifts that overlap at different levels, so you still get an hour overlap at lunchtime. There are still things like rostered days off, and other things like that, that are part of the whole negotiating process.
You are right in that ongoing professional development is absolutely essential, and it will be part of any approach that we take. Mr Osborne, you will also be very interested to know that at this stage, under the current rostering arrangements, there are 81 different shift patterns. You can imagine the amount of paperwork, both clerically and in the pay areas, that it takes to manage that sort of approach. The approach we have put on the table takes that 81 down to 12, so you can see the amount of clerical time that we would save.
MS McRAE: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mrs Carnell in her capacity as Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care. Mrs Carnell, I refer to the Woden Valley Hospital information bulletin on patient activity data for the month of December 1995, Table 6. This states:
Data for patients booked in advance is no longer being provided by the WVH Surgical Booking Office due to staff shortages.
Given that the situation existed for three of the last four months of 1995, will you now act to ensure that staffing levels in the surgical booking office are adequate to perform the duties required of them, or will the nurses have to deliver more flowers to commemorate the end of the surgical booking office in the same way as they felt compelled this morning to deliver flowers for the death of the Health Department?
MRS CARNELL: Substantial changes are happening at Woden Valley Hospital, and we would like them to happen at Woden Valley Hospital. Certainly, the hospital is going through a substantial restructuring. Unfortunately, that restructuring has been hampered substantially by unions who simply are not interested - - -
Ms McRae: Answer the question.
MRS CARNELL: That is exactly what it is.
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