Ms McHale questions the Minister for Health on why a reporting date of 29 September was set for the King Edward Memorial Hospital inquiry, given the inquirer's unavailability. The Minister explains the initial hope for a quick completion and the subsequent agreement to extend the deadline to June 2001 due to the volume of submissions and files.

AnsweredQoN 206Legislative Assembly
Asked
21 September 2000
Member
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

KING EDWARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN, EXTENSION OF REPORTING DATE OF INQUIRY
I ask a supplementary question. If the minister knew that inquirer was not available, why did he set 29 September as the reporting date? Mr DAY

AnswerView source ↗

It has always been the desire of the Government and, I think, everyone that this inquiry be completed as soon as possible. That is in everyone’s interests. We were certainly hopeful that it could be completed by the end of September. There was always the intention, of course, that if more time was requested - I made this clear at the start - it would be extremely unlikely that the Government would not agree to that request. Once the members of the inquiry panel were appointed and had the opportunity of getting into the matters in some detail - bearing in mind also that 230 submissions have been received, and an additional 280 files from King Edward Memorial Hospital are being reviewed by the inquiry - they came to the conclusion that they needed the additional time until the end of June 2001; and, as I have made it very clear, that request has been agreed to by the Government, on their advice.
Mr DAY replied: It has always been the desire of the Government and, I think, everyone that this inquiry be completed as soon as possible. That is in everyone’s interests. We were certainly hopeful that it could be completed by the end of September. There was always the intention, of course, that if more time was requested - I made this clear at the start - it would be extremely unlikely that the Government would not agree to that request. Once the members of the inquiry panel were appointed and had the opportunity of getting into the matters in some detail - bearing in mind also that 230 submissions have been received, and an additional 280 files from King Edward Memorial Hospital are being reviewed by the inquiry - they came to the conclusion that they needed the additional time until the end of June 2001; and, as I have made it very clear, that request has been agreed to by the Government, on their advice.
It has always been the desire of the Government and, I think, everyone that this inquiry be completed as soon as possible. That is in everyone’s interests. We were certainly hopeful that it could be completed by the end of September. There was always the intention, of course, that if more time was requested - I made this clear at the start - it would be extremely unlikely that the Government would not agree to that request. Once the members of the inquiry panel were appointed and had the opportunity of getting into the matters in some detail - bearing in mind also that 230 submissions have been received, and an additional 280 files from King Edward Memorial Hospital are being reviewed by the inquiry - they came to the conclusion that they needed the additional time until the end of June 2001; and, as I have made it very clear, that request has been agreed to by the Government, on their advice.

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