Page 2621 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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announcement this morning about what they want to do at the Canberra Hospital and I note the highly unrealistic time frame that they have attached to that commitment. If it is so urgent that they believe this work needs to be done now, they should have done more work on analysing when that infrastructure should be delivered, because the very clear advice to me from Health is that whilst Mr Hanson is saying that that project will be completed in 2019, the earliest advice I have from ACT Health on that matter is 2021, nearly three years later.
What is critically important is the delivery of an efficient public hospital system for our city. This facility that the Liberals have committed to delivers a net increase of approximately 30 beds. We are delivering, through our hospital utilisation plan, the equivalent of an additional 50 beds through better bed utilisation.
Mr Hanson cannot have it both ways. He cannot stand up in this place and criticise the government for the cost of running the public health system and then not do anything to improve efficiency in the delivery of public health services. What he is doing is building more infrastructure without addressing the efficiency question. The facts are that we can deliver the equivalent of an extra 50 beds into our public hospital system right now through better bed utilisation rather than spending nearly $400 million, which is what Mr Hanson is proposing, for a net gain of only 30 beds. Those are the real dilemmas that we have—aside, of course, from how they are going to pay for it—in terms of the Liberals’ plan.
In contrast, and in response to the question from Mrs Jones, what I would say is that we are investing over $100 million in upgrades to the Canberra Hospital and we are achieving better bed utilisation to the equivalent of 50 additional beds in the public hospital system. That means more people are getting the care they need in facilities that are contemporary and modern to meet their needs.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Minister, what will be the impact of the government’s continued delays to making significant improvements to the hospital—improvements that were promised by Katy Gallagher—on the many thousands of patients in the Canberra region who use the hospital?
MR CORBELL: The impact we are having now is on improving access and timeliness to public health services. That is what Canberrans expect. As I have outlined in my previous answer, we are increasing the number of beds available in the public hospital system by 50 through better bed utilisation, by more efficient practice. In contrast, the Liberals are going to spend nearly $400 million for an increase of only 30 additional hospital beds. That is the contrast between the two sides of this place.
We will continue to make investments in infrastructure that are based on detailed assessments of need and demand and at the same time we will focus very strongly on improving the utilisation of our public health system. One of the reasons we rank in the higher level for cost of our public health system compared to other jurisdictions is because we do not achieve the efficiencies that other public health systems deliver. To address that, we need to first and foremost use our existing resources more efficiently so more people get access to the care they need.
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