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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2437 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

Drink spiking is a crime that, quite clearly, is being perpetrated frequently and more often than is reported. I have had discussions with the AFP over encouraging people who may have been the victim of drink spiking and who do not want to report the offence because they feel, for some personal reason, unable to do so to report it through Crime Stoppers at least without identifying themselves as we would still have the capacity to build intelligence on the frequency, the places and the circumstances of the offences and we might be able to build a pattern and to react more strongly against it. That is a two-edged sword. If we encourage reporting to Crime Stoppers, we may discourage a few people who otherwise may have given full details. On balance, given the likely level of drink spiking not being reported, I think that we should embark on a campaign to encourage people affected by this crime, particularly in cities, to use Crime Stoppers and at least give us the information to help address and try to stem the process.

Hospital waiting lists

MR SMYTH: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, in the lead-up to the election last year, you said that waiting lists were unacceptably long and that your crisis injection of $6 million would provide services for, "say 1,300 inpatients and 2,500 accident and emergency patients", with an extra 3,800 patients being seen. Given that the throughput outcome of your crisis injection was that only 300 extra patients were seen, what happened to the remaining 3,500? Why were they not attended to as promised?

MR STANHOPE: I would have to check those figures. I am not quite sure if that is how it works.

Mr Smyth: It is what you promised.

MR STANHOPE: Yes, but I did not promise to provide $4.7 million to Calvary Hospital, which I did provide, and I think that Calvary Hospital, as a result of the injection-

Mrs Dunne: It is closing its elective surgery for 14 weeks.

MR STANHOPE: No, no, no. Go back to the question that was asked. I do not have the numbers here and I will have to check on it, but I think you will find that Calvary Hospital in the period June to June increased throughput by 18 per cent or something or other as a result of the injection of $4.7 million which I made and the money was directed at elective surgery. I think you will find, indeed, that Canberra Hospital transferred a number of patients from its waiting list to the Calvary waiting list as a consequence of that. I do not have the numbers here, I do not have them with me, in terms of the exact performance of both Canberra and Calvary. But, in terms of the additional moneys which were provided to Canberra Hospital, moneys which we paid and which we did promise, as you rightly recall, we did introduce-

Mr Smyth: But you also promised an extra 3,800 services.

MR STANHOPE: I did not say that; I said "say".

Mr Smyth: So it wasn't a real promise.

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