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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-05 Daily Xml
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QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:38): I seek leave to make an explanation prior to directing a question to the minister representing the Minister for Health on the subject of cancelled operations.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The Liberal Party has been contacted by a 70-year-old female who was meant to have a right hemicolectomy (which is the removal of the right-side colon) yesterday morning at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This woman arrived at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Admissions at 7am yesterday only to be told that her surgery had been postponed but they could not tell her when the new date would be. She indicated to the staff at Admissions that she had a copy of a letter with the 4 March date on it but they said, nevertheless, the operation had been postponed. She did receive a call late yesterday afternoon to inform her of the new date for her surgery. My questions are:

1. Is this cancellation of major surgery an inevitable result of the government's $949 million in budget cuts being implemented and, if not, what was the reason for the cancelled surgery?

2. What procedures are meant to be adopted in circumstances where major surgery is postponed? Were these procedures followed in this particular case and, if not, why not?

3. Does the minister agree that it is unacceptable that a 78-year-old woman facing major surgery should arrive for that major surgery at 7am only to be told that it has been postponed?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, and of course I undertake to take that to the Minister for Health and Ageing in another place and seek a response on his behalf. I might also ask the honourable member if he should consider, in fact, what the impacts of his cuts will be when he—hopefully never—gets into government? Their plan is to reduce 25,000 to 35,000 public servants. How many front-line staff will that impact? That is the question we should be asking.

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