Page 2307 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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their hospital. As I have been saying, nurses are busy. They are stretched and they are under pressure. Winter has been tough. It is not about making excuses. I have never stood up and said that there are no problems in the public health system. You will not find a minister anywhere in the world who would stand up, put their hand on their heart and say, “There are no problems in the ACT health system.” I have never said that.
I have said that, if you have got proof around the issues you are raising—around infection control, around nurses being sacked, around the management and overheads, around basic supplies and equipment—let us work it out. But you cannot. You do not have any evidence. I am working blind in the sense that I can only investigate what is raised with me. Even if matters are raised using a whole range of cliches and buried in a media release, I still try to get to the issue. But there is absolutely no proof to substantiate the claims: they are dangerous; they are talking down the reputation of our public health system. (Time expired.)
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra—Leader of the Opposition) (11.22): I hardly think that Mrs Burke is talking down the reputation of our public health system and our hospitals. It is the duty of an opposition—it should be a duty of all members—to listen to people—to listen to complaints: maybe sometimes sift the real from the imaginary, but listen to people, talk to people. If you lot did that a little bit more, you would not get yourselves into so much trouble. That is certainly the job of someone who has responsibility for health, be they in opposition or government. To me, Mrs Burke seems to be doing her job. In fact, I have heard her absolutely praise the excellent work done in our health system by individuals—both in the public system, at Calvary and Canberra hospitals, and in the private system. It is only through overcoming some of these difficulties—actually listening to people who are coming up with some real problems at any one point in time—that we can actually improve systems. Mrs Burke’s motion is simply seeking to do just that.
It would be pretty easy—and the minister has sought to do it today—to assure the public, for example, that patient care is not being compromised. The minister indicates today—she seems to state—that she has something in place to encourage nurses and professionals to report on breaches of protocols and failings in the system. I am not quite sure about the fear of losing their jobs. That does concern me. And it is not just in this area that we hear concerns that people are worried about their jobs if they speak out in relation to any area of public service under this government. That is unfortunate. I see that much more than was the case with previous governments. Yes, with previous governments there would be people who would be worried about doing that too, but not to the same extent. That is something where you do need to lift your game. You do need actually to hear complaints—take complaints, and take them in the spirit they are meant—and do something about them, rather than just being totally defensive. Not everything is hunky-dory.
Not everything can possibly be hunky-dory in a health system. It is an incredible job. It is probably one of the most difficult jobs in government. I can think of only one minister who was lucky enough not to have too many problems when she was health minister, and that was Kate Carnell. Every other minister for health has gone through some fairly rough patches from time to time. That is part and parcel of the job,
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