Page 2673 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Dr Sherbon went on to comment on some of the more basic faults in the current system, many of which should have been at least looked at for improvement some years ago. For instance, he stated:
The hours of opening (for operating theatres) are archaic and this minister took into the budget process a proposal to extend our hours of opening at theatre lists at Canberra Hospital from 8 till 4 to 8 till 5—
a radical improvement—
and that is now in effect from 1 July.
After these changes, he said:
… we would be up to more comparable opening hours with our jurisdictional partners right around the country. We recognise the 4 pm finish time was inappropriate.
You really wonder how long it has taken them to get that message. I have been here for only two years but that was evident to me from the first moment I started to discuss with those in the field of medicine the way in which the hospitals operate. From talking to specialists, any specialist in Canberra can tell you about the problems with the hours of the hospital. But the penny seems to have only just dropped. Whether it is because Ms Gallagher has picked up the ball from where Mr Corbell had run the place—and obviously he could not make these highly complicated decisions of extending by an hour—or not, I am not sure.
But it was not just opening hours for theatres and waiting lists for operations that were found wanting. An issue as basic to a properly run health system as sufficient numbers of hospital beds for its patients was found to be unsatisfactory, with the minister herself conceding:
Depending on—
and these are her words—
what report you read, we are under the national average per 1,000 population ... Whilst we will remain under the national average, we are making a pretty concerted effort to ensure that we are increasing beds to match demand in our hospital system.
I know the minister sometimes makes light of the fact that Mr Smyth has raised the issue of the number of beds that are needed, but this is critical and is impacting constantly through many stories that are relayed back to members of this place.
Looking at these quotes, one could easily believe that there is a lot of work to do in ACT Health to bring it up to speed with the rest of the country. But our new minister will have nothing of that. Her perspective reflects the basic denial that this government suffers in being able to acknowledge its faults and implement effective and sensible solutions. She stated:
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