Page 3273 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 13 November 2007
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for myringoplasty, involving surgical reconstruction of a damaged eardrum, are unacceptable. How many days would people expect to wait in Queensland? Sixty days.
It now seems that every state government faces the challenge of swiftly tailoring health services to meet the demands of the health client base. We must counter the associated complexity of health technology, with its long lead times and staff learning and development challenges. Across Australia, Labor has failed to develop or announce a comprehensive plan to increase the number of doctors, nurses and specialists available in local communities to support patients. Labor’s ad hoc super clinic program is little more than a slogan.
From the outset, Canberra’s basic infrastructure falls behind national trends—3.4 beds per 1,000 head of population compared to 4.0 beds in the states. The government tells us it is adding more beds, yet occupancy is at 95 per cent, which it has been told is far too high. Effective initiatives that re-engineer health services are the direction required by government to increase health service delivery outcomes. Administration costs are far higher than the average for comparable hospitals, and Canberrans wanting elective surgery still face the longest wait in Australia. The minister, by her own admission, with reference to patients in aged care, mental health and chronic disease management, says:
The numbers that are being seen … will not be able to be managed in a system built as we have now.
Therefore, if change is not driven by good management practices and strong ministerial leadership, we will continue to have more of the same—poor outcomes, poor performances.
ACT nurses attending the ANF ACT branch biennial conference on Friday, 27 July resolved that it had become essential to notify the ACT community that staffing levels in the public and private health sectors cannot sustain the work demands on health services and that nurses were concerned that standards of care may be comprised and needed to alert the community of genuine concern. Clearly, that is yet another indictment of this government and all state and territory governments across Australia.
There must be some systemic problem, as identified by the Chief Minister, that Labor governments simply cannot get to grips with. I have no idea what it is but I would love to have an audit of all hospitals across Australia to find out why they are in this position. Why are we in this position? We have had more money poured into our health system since self-government, yet we still cannot seem to have better-quality outcomes for people who have been on waiting lists for months and years. It does not seem to be simply an issue of throwing money at the problem. Of course, to his credit, finally the Chief Minister did acknowledge that it was not an issue about money or beds. That is why we come to the point today that the Chief Minister acknowledged—that it is about systemic management issues. I do not know when the light actually came on and the Chief Minister realised that he had to say that that is what it was.
Mr Stanhope: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I said no such thing. That is a gross misrepresentation.
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