Page 4925 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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favour of destructive, negative politics, not once taking a breath to congratulate staff, for example, on achieving full accreditation. As Liberals say, Liberals do, and the Canberra community should be very worried about these Canberra Liberals. After all, it is the opposition’s spokeswoman who has said that our popular walk-in centres are a criminal waste of taxpayers’ money, has said that I should just sack people and has talked of exorcising the witches.
I have got on with the job. I have not sought to be a health minister who denies that improvements need to be made. I have not sought to be a health minister in a system where nothing goes wrong. That would constitute poor performance. I have been a minister who recognises the complexity of a health system and the essential components of futureproofing that system for our community.
I will address some of the points raised in Mrs Dunne’s motion. She claims she has serious concerns about workplace culture, yet she has dismissed our very serious independent review. I remind her that this review is being led by three eminent health professionals who have been to our hospitals and health services and talked directly to staff to try to elicit real change and outcomes.
The panel has called for submissions. They close this Friday, and I encourage anyone who wishes to make a submission to do so. It will be protected, in line with their wishes. The panel has held many forums with the community and with health sector stakeholders. So far more than 150 submissions have been received and I am very pleased to see this work progressing. As the minister for health, I strongly encourage staff who wish to make a submission to do so.
I look forward to seeing the panel’s work, and I believe this independent review will be a critical process of learning and healing. It is supported by a wide range of stakeholders. I have asked for findings and recommendations; they will be made public and the government will respond. While Mrs Dunne continues her negative campaign, I am getting on with the job and ensuring that staff have a safe, accessible and private way to share their stories and thoughts on improving workplace culture and putting in place the necessary steps for any of those matters to be referred to appropriate agencies.
Secondly, Mrs Dunne claims there is high churn of staff within ACT Health and Canberra Health Services. With a workforce of more than 7,500 people, from time to time people will move into new positions, retire or seek a new opportunity. I reject outright her claim of high churn.
As I am sure members are aware, we are delivering more elective surgery than ever before but, again, those opposite do not care about the facts. Canberra Health Services is committed to reducing the number of people waiting beyond clinically recommended time frames and performed well in many specialities last year. High rates of timeliness were achieved in cardiac, thoracic, gynaecology, head and neck, obstetrics and vascular surgery. There were zero long waits in paediatric surgery, an important achievement. We will continue to work on improving other surgical areas over the course of this year.
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