Page 1232 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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improvements to make. As we will discuss when Mrs Dunne brings her motion forward later, we have made a lot of improvements in recent years, but there is more work to do.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, this is another example from recent media reports: why would patients in the adult mental health unit not be given medication when they need it and according to the timetable of their need?
MR RATTENBURY: That is a very general observation from Mrs Dunne. Canberra Health Services has considerable care and protocols around the provision of medication. It will be a matter for doctors, clinicians, to make those calls about when somebody should have their medication. Without any specific concerns that I am aware of, my comment to Mrs Dunne is that medication timetables are determined by the clinicians and delivered by other supporting medical staff as directed.
Health—air pollution
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Minister for Health. On 30 March, you answered question on notice 2921 from me, advising:
It is not possible to determine whether an Emergency Department (ED) presentation is wholly or partly attributable to air quality in our data holding.
On 25 May, the ABC reported Canberra Health Services advising that there were 166 emergency department presentations related to bushfire smoke. Minister, did you mislead the Assembly in your response to my question on notice?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Could I just get Mrs Dunne to repeat the question—at least the dates that she referred to.
MRS DUNNE: On 30 March, you answered question on notice 2921 and on 25 May the ABC reported that 166 cases had presented in relation to bushfire smoke, whereas the answer to question 2921 said that you could not provide that information because the data did not allow it.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will take the question on notice and come back to Mrs Dunne. There may be an issue around the two dates: between 30 March and providing further information to the journalist there may have been capacity to interrogate that data. I certainly would not mislead the Assembly in relation to that matter. It may also be a question of the wording, and I have had this experience in questions from the opposition before, where it is alleged that I have answered a question in one way and then said something else differently, and when I look at it, the two questions are actually completely different questions.
I will take that on notice and come back to Mrs Dunne with more information.
MRS DUNNE: When you come back with more information, can you reconcile the differences between the answer of 30 March and the information provided to the ABC for their story, published on 25 May?
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