Page 3278 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 13 November 2007
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“management” and “managers”—guess what: managers are management; it is the same thing. But with the constant talking down of it, without any proof—
Mr Mulcahy: There’s a lot of proof.
MS GALLAGHER: There is no proof. The last time Mrs Burke was asked to prove things, she tabled as proof about 20 media releases that she had written. It is an absolute joke to think that there has been any proof. It is not true that there has been any way that Mrs Burke has proved any of the things she has said, other than the fact that she goes on radio and says it. Perhaps if you say it for long enough, it does become true, certainly to Mrs Burke.
I am really concerned about the reputations that the opposition is slighting, particularly in relation to the management of ACT Health. I do not think we could have a better team in place to deal with the issue of emerging health pressures and the current health pressures that exist. Our emergency department sees in excess of 100,000 presentations a year. We admit around 70,000 people. With respect to elective surgery, we are doing more surgery than ever before. Mrs Burke claimed that by removing 9,320 it shows how out of control the list is. The waiting list is not 9,320. That shows you how many people join the list and get moved through. At any time, there are under 5,000 people on the waiting list. We are removing almost twice the waiting list every year. But guess what, Mrs Burke? People keep joining the waiting list. Doctors keep saying, “I think you need this surgery,” and putting them on the waiting list. So it is not a matter of saying that the list is out of control. You cannot remove 9,300 people from the list and say, “That obviously shows you how out of control the list is.” That shows you how many people need surgery, Mrs Burke.
So that is to be blamed on ACT Health—the fact that we have 9,320 residents of the ACT who needed surgery, who got their surgery and who were removed from the list. Your proposition is almost laughable—that because we have removed so many people, it shows how out of control things are. We are doing 1,700 more operations a year than we did three years ago, and that is because of the investment this government has made in elective surgery. That will not remove the waiting list, because waiting lists are determined by clinicians who have put people on the waiting list. The only thing the government has control over is removals from the list, and we are removing 1,700 more people from the list every single year than were removed three years ago.
The measures that the government has in place are dealing with the pressures the hospitals are seeing at the moment. We have, as I said, a first-rate hospital system. We have first-rate managers running that system. With respect to the allegations made by the opposition, all they are doing is seeking to scare people into thinking that our hospital system does not offer the services that it does.
Mrs Burke: No, that’s wrong. That’s wrong and you know it.
MS GALLAGHER: Well, Mrs Burke—
Mrs Burke: That is an immature comment, and I am surprised at you.
MS GALLAGHER: So you are instilling public confidence in the hospital system, are you? That is the opposite of what you are doing. You are talking it down. You are
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