“A strong reason for a Royal Commission is that such poor performance is not without consequences. Children have died from treatable infections,” writes MICHAEL MOORE.

THE Canberra Liberals called for a Royal Commission into ACT Health just a week before the announcement of the compulsory acquisition of Calvary Public Hospital. 

They argued the system was broken, and all attempts by the Labor/Greens government to get the system back on its feet had failed.

The Canberra Liberals set the date for the reporting of their Royal Commission well after the October 2024 election to avoid accusations of electioneering. 

“The problem is that the ACT health system is broken”, Acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson told the ACT Assembly, “and it must be fixed”.

It is time for the government to take a breath on a Calvary takeover. Insert this issue into the terms of reference and initiate a Royal Commission into ACT Health Services.

Waiting times for elective surgery have blown out from amongst the best performance in the country to the worst since Labor came to power. 

In the Emergency Department it is the same story – the worst in the country. Less than 50 per cent of patients are seen within the Australian standard times.

No-one suggests this is due to inadequacies of the doctors and nurses. Decreases in funding in order to pay for the tram, poor management and failures in personnel management and poor morale have all contributed. There were dire warnings about failures from five cardiologists in March.

A strong reason for a Royal Commission is that such poor performance is not without consequences. Children have died from treatable infections. 

How does the government respond to a call for the strongest possible examination of their health system, a Royal Commission? First, is an outright rejection. Second, the ACT government seems hell bent on bringing the Calvary Hospital into the same system that has been responsible for such a decline in health services.

This takeover bid for Calvary is not new. In 2010 the issue was flagged by the government and considered by an Assembly committee. The committee pointed out that the options they preferred “would retain the services of LCMHC (Little Company of Mary Health Care) and the Calvary Public Hospital as a significant stakeholder in the delivery of health care services to the people of the ACT”. 

These recommendations included a 200 bed sub-acute hospital in Belconnen. The government delivered just 120 beds. They also included an additional 400 beds at the Canberra Hospital. Not all have been delivered. In “CityNews” former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and former treasury official Khalid Ahmed have identified a 150-hospital bed shortfall across ACT Health.

In proposing the motion for a Royal Commission into health services in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Hanson said: “A royal commission can provide a pathway forward. It really can. It can take the politics out of it. It can give the staff the confidence that there is a long-term solution to fix this ailing system. It is up to the chief minister to determine the exact terms of reference”.

His suggestions to be included in the terms of reference include “staffing shortages, waiting times, management and cultural problems, the poor results across the key performance indicators, management and outcomes in the mental health system, governance issues, infrastructure requirements, and funding shortfalls and priorities”. 

Had he known, no doubt he would have included the compulsory acquisition of the Calvary Public Hospital.

The Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, responded in the Assembly with a lecture on how all first ministers were working together to resolve similar problems through the Council of the Australian Federation. He did not address the issue of the ACT falling from a leader in health-care delivery to being at the bottom of the pile.

He told the Assembly: “The issues that have been highlighted are not unique to the ACT. They are occurring in every state and territory. The principal reason for this is 10 years of underinvestment in primary healthcare. Year on year, relentlessly grinding down the most important part of our healthcare system”. 

The Greens’ Johnathan Davis, as a member of the government and chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Community Wellbeing, explained: “I believe we understand these problems and the government is implementing the solutions”. 

I wonder how many Canberrans share his belief? Is the takeover of Calvary one of the solutions or is he just towing the government line? 

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.