Page 3787 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 28 October 2015

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The same can be said, to a greater or lesser extent, on the other matters that Mr Hanson has raised today. I doubt there is a household in Canberra who is not aware that waiting times at the emergency department can be long and frustrating. But I would also hazard a guess that the vast majority of the 126,000 patients admitted in 2013-14 would say that once seen the treatment was more than satisfactory.

Also, it is worth repeating that, as reported in the same article Mr Hanson cites regarding waiting times, about 83 per cent of the ACT’s emergency patients were seen within 10 minutes, which was above the national rate of 82 per cent. Further, as we all know, and as the Minister for Health notes in his amendment, the ED is about to undergo significant renovations and expansion. I do not pretend to have all the answers but I am also not hearing any specific ideas being put forth by the Canberra Liberals at this time that would address the ED wait times.

Certainly from a Greens’ perspective we recognise the need to address both ends of the health spectrum, to work on preventive measures but also to make sure that our ED system works very effectively. As we come to the election next year this will be the time for Mr Hanson to put his policies on the table and I look forward to seeing what they are.

This is not a simple area of public policy, particularly when we also read that the ACT recorded the highest average annual increase in emergency presentations of any state or territory, with a 4.2 per cent jump since 2009-10, higher than the national rate of 2.6 per cent At the risk of again repeating Mr Hanson’s favourite media outlet, the very same report states that the AIHW found that there were 92,019 admissions to the Canberra and Calvary hospitals during 2013-14, an increase of 10 per cent in the past five years, with 18 per cent of recorded presentations involving New South Wales residents. Clearly there are pressures and strains on our health system and clearly we need to be smarter, more efficient and more cost effective in how we respond.

I do not agree with the Canberra Liberals that the ACT public hospital system is in systemic failure. Nor do I believe that something that has so many moving parts and interdependencies with outside influences such as the burdens of harm and social determinants of health that our modern society is facing can be dealt with by fixes. The hospital is not a broken toy that can be fixed. It is an essential service provider that deals with birth and death and everything in between.

I would have liked to have seen a perhaps more concrete commitment from Minister Corbell in regard to updates to the Assembly on progressing a range of these important initiatives and strategies. But I do accept that in the first instance the opposition will, of course, have opportunities to question the minister and his directorate during annual reports and estimates hearings processes, through question time and, of course, through debates and motions such as these.

I would also have liked to have seen something perhaps slightly more engaging and thought provoking from the Leader of the Opposition in terms of proactive policy or concrete asks beyond the longer than usual litany of negative complaints and a blunt fix-it approach but I am sure I am going to have to wait longer yet before we have that kind of debate.


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