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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (14 October) . . Page.. 3148 ..
MR OSBORNE (continuing):
do not generate thirst - you can't go and play in the park as you get thirsty being active. It is also very difficult to allay a child's fears if they have had several procedures and the longer that they are awake and aware that today is the day the more stressed even the best prepared child will be.
When we were inpatients at Sydney Children's Hospital awaiting the start of -
I will not name the child -
chemotherapy scans under anaesthetic were organised for a 7.00 am admission time. The number of children being examined was naturally far greater in a specialist children's hospital but the timing was organised for the benefit of the children.
Minister, I can only ask the same question as this mother. Can you give an explanation as to why these procedures for children occur in the afternoon? Could you please explain to me why the routine bookings of these scans under anaesthetic cannot be organised for an early morning timeslot?
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Osborne, for the question. I also received a copy of the letter to Mr Rayment. What I will do is follow up and ask the same question myself, because it does seem to me to be rather sensible to be able to wake a child up, then skip the breakfast and have such a procedure done rather than wait and go through the process that this woman describes for her own child. So, Mr Osborne, I will follow up and see whether the hospital can rearrange things. I will see what the block is.
She talks about scans done under anaesthetic, so we have to have anaesthetists involved as well as people from medical imaging. It seems to me that as the hospital increases its focus on customer service, and that is what we have asked it to do, it should be thinking about these things, and the whole organisation of the hospital should be designed around what is the best way we can deal, in particular, with very young children.
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. The joint working party on the potential merger of ACTEW and Great Southern Energy disclosed that $15m has been spent on the very promising TransAct project to date. Can the Chief Minister provide a breakdown of this figure?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I will take the question, as Minister responsible for ACTEW. I have seen information about the way in which that money has been spent. I do not have the figures available with me at the moment, so I will take that question on notice.
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