Page 2958 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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about system improvements, it is about all of the things that improve access to our public health system. We have made that investment and that commitment.
The government acknowledges that there will always be more that needs to be done. However, this considerable increase in investment in health services has helped manage the increase in demand for health care. Our emergency departments provide a very efficient service once patients commence treatment. The recent report by the AIHW reported that the average treatment time in emergency departments was two hours and 24 minutes, which is well below the national average of two hours and 55 minutes. Mr Speaker, the government will continue to invest in improving access to public hospital systems for the ACT community.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (4.32): Mr Speaker, members are well aware, of course, of the disquiet amongst the people of Canberra about the management of our public hospital system, which has been beset by crises in recent weeks—actually, it is recent months. This is something that has not just happened overnight; it has been building progressively over a series of months and months. Staff at the Canberra Hospital have made magnificent efforts to meet the various demands placed on them, but, of course, they are working in extremely difficult circumstances, and it is imperative that management and the government take every step possible to support them, which those on the front line report, unfortunately, is still not really happening. People being asked to do things and, having said no, still being asked by management to do them is simply not working well with your staff. Something serious needs to be done. We have heard the rhetoric; let us see the action.
The Chief Minister put on record last week that there are clinical issues and staffing and systemic issues that we need to address and investigate closely. These are the processes we need to go through. To get bogged down in a debate about, “Well, this is about bed numbers or money,” really belies perhaps some of the systemic issues that need to be investigated. Mr Stanhope must be aware of these issues, as he identifies the fact that there are problems within the system. So, that being the case, why has nothing effective been done in this area during his term as Chief Minister? I have been saying for months, as, indeed, other groups have as well, that it is about management. Mr Corbell has just borne that out by saying it is not about beds, it is not about money. There is a whole raft of things now the government is talking about where, originally, it was all supposedly the commonwealth’s fault.
Why did it take a death in the emergency department at the Canberra Hospital to trigger an announcement of some action? Why? The people of Canberra and its region are sick and tired of the present system where delays are the order of the day and no guarantee of timely attention can be given. The ACT Health Services Commissioner says there has been a 28 per cent increase in the number of complaints fielded in the first four months of this year—that is, 2006-07. The opposition, together with nursing and health groups, has been raising serious concerns about staffing levels, workload problems and inept management at the hospital. The minister, Katy Gallagher, or the Chief Minister must now reassure the public that there are no more disasters waiting to happen within our public hospital system. This is called confidence, and people are fast losing confidence with the hospital system—certainly not with the staff that are there—and certainly with the management by this government of this vital area. They
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