❓ Mr. Cook questions the Minister for Health regarding the Treasurer's comments on failures in the Fiona Stanley Hospital project. The Minister defends the government's overall health performance and addresses concerns about the hospital contract.
AnsweredQoN 13Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
FIONA
STANLEY HOSPITAL — TREASURER'S COMMENTS
13. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister
for Health:
Minister, my question is not about fruit. I refer to the
comment made yesterday by the Treasurer that there are significant failures at
the Department of Health in the planning and delivery of Fiona Stanley
Hospital. Is the Treasurer correct in saying that Health is the minister's
agency, and therefore the minister is responsible for these significant
failures, cost blowouts and delays?
STANLEY HOSPITAL — TREASURER'S COMMENTS
13. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister
for Health:
Minister, my question is not about fruit. I refer to the
comment made yesterday by the Treasurer that there are significant failures at
the Department of Health in the planning and delivery of Fiona Stanley
Hospital. Is the Treasurer correct in saying that Health is the minister's
agency, and therefore the minister is responsible for these significant
failures, cost blowouts and delays?
AnswerView source ↗
I did listen to and in fact read the comments of the
Treasurer, and he was not referring specifically to Fiona Stanley Hospital in
those comments. In fact, he was talking more generally about health.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
That is true. It has been no secret in successive governments that occasionally
the relationship between Treasury and the Department of Health can be troubled.
The reason is that health chews up such a large percentage of the budget. In
fact, health has now gone from 25 per cent of total state expenditure to 27 per
cent. This government has invested a massive amount of money in fixing the
health system in this state. We do not need to go back very far to remember—not
just with the previous government, but also with our government previously—when
the health system was under a huge amount of pressure and the health department
was having problems delivering services. We had a great Minister for Health in
the current Minister for Planning. During the time we were in government, we
had four different health ministers. Subsequently, a Labor government came to
power and promised to fix the health system. Did it do that? Absolutely not.
The health system under the Labor government got worse and worse and worse. In
the end, I was prompted by people in the media and was asked, ''What do
you think of this health system in crisis?'' Those were the media's
words—''health system in crisis''—and that is
what it was. We have turned that around. In the five years that we have been in
government, Western Australia has gone from being the worst state in Australia
to the best state in Australia on a huge number of measures. Our health service
is second to none. Western Australians collectively are the longest living of
all Australians, male and female, and Western Australians are among the best in
the world for longevity. The recent study undertaken by the national health
standards committee shows that Western Australia ranks as having one of the
best health systems. Our government has done a fantastic job in health, and I
am very proud of all those hardworking people in Health.
I turn now to Fiona Stanley Hospital. What are the mistakes
at Fiona Stanley, and what has gone wrong at Fiona Stanley? Is something wrong
with the Serco contract? No. Did the Under Treasurer say that something is
wrong with the contract? No, he did not. He complained about the lack of time
he had to scrutinise the contract. I can say that Treasury people were involved
in that contract all along the way; in fact, a person contracted to the
Department of Treasury was on the organising committee the whole time, right
through the full development of that contract—a Treasury-contracted
person. There was involvement. The Under Treasurer was, to use his words, ''pissed
off'' in the end with the time he had to look at the final contract, but
I can tell members that a few people in health might have been ''pissed
off'' with him as well, in terms of how a very detailed and complex
contract was worked through with Treasury.
Mr R.H. Cook : You're
saying Marney is a liar; is that right?
Dr K.D. HAMES : No,
I did not say that.
Mr R.H. Cook : You're
saying he was involved all along.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Why does the member for Kwinana not go back through Hansard and read what I said.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Kwinana, if you want a supplementary question, you will
get a supplementary question. We are not going into short questions.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It was a difficult contract. What mistakes were made with the
whole thing? Two were made in my view. One was the time that we set for the
opening in April. It was a construction site up until December. I went there
just before that to do something with the media and there were workers
everywhere—painters, carpenters and electricians right through the
building.
Mr
R.H. Cook : There was nothing wrong with the construction site; it was your
department's work that was at fault.
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
difficulty was the time we set. It is our fault; we set a time that only gave
us three months to go from a construction site to the opening of the hospital.
It was not enough. The other problem we had was with health information
technology. Health IT was not able to get together all the programs we needed
to get the hospital open and we made a determination—the director
general and I, in conjunction with the other ministers in cabinet—that
the opening needed to be delayed to ensure the safety of patients coming to
that hospital. That is the six-month delay and we regret that occurring, but
this is a program that has happened over many, many years to get to that final
stage of the contract. Those two things were a problem.
What did it cost us? It cost us $18 million for the delay of
six months in the contract and that was because the contract contained a
mitigation clause. What was the other cost? There was another $30 million
because separately to that we made a decision to phase in the opening and not
to try to have it just over a month as had previously been planned. There was
cost involved with that; there was the $30 million to Serco and $75 million for
having to employ people over those six months who are still working in two
different hospitals. They are the extra costs.
[Interruption from the gallery.]
The SPEAKER :
Excuse me, that lady with the camera there taking photos, please no photos in
the chamber.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
There has been a huge amount of work. We are very proud of what has happened in
the end. The fact is that there is some delay and that has a cost. Compare that
with the Office of Shared Services' $1 billion loss; that is like
building a children's hospital and then burning it down! Through the
Labor government's program, through its former leader, it wasted $1 billion.
I could have used that; I could have built another hospital with that $1 billion.
Treasurer, and he was not referring specifically to Fiona Stanley Hospital in
those comments. In fact, he was talking more generally about health.
Several members interjected.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
That is true. It has been no secret in successive governments that occasionally
the relationship between Treasury and the Department of Health can be troubled.
The reason is that health chews up such a large percentage of the budget. In
fact, health has now gone from 25 per cent of total state expenditure to 27 per
cent. This government has invested a massive amount of money in fixing the
health system in this state. We do not need to go back very far to remember—not
just with the previous government, but also with our government previously—when
the health system was under a huge amount of pressure and the health department
was having problems delivering services. We had a great Minister for Health in
the current Minister for Planning. During the time we were in government, we
had four different health ministers. Subsequently, a Labor government came to
power and promised to fix the health system. Did it do that? Absolutely not.
The health system under the Labor government got worse and worse and worse. In
the end, I was prompted by people in the media and was asked, ''What do
you think of this health system in crisis?'' Those were the media's
words—''health system in crisis''—and that is
what it was. We have turned that around. In the five years that we have been in
government, Western Australia has gone from being the worst state in Australia
to the best state in Australia on a huge number of measures. Our health service
is second to none. Western Australians collectively are the longest living of
all Australians, male and female, and Western Australians are among the best in
the world for longevity. The recent study undertaken by the national health
standards committee shows that Western Australia ranks as having one of the
best health systems. Our government has done a fantastic job in health, and I
am very proud of all those hardworking people in Health.
I turn now to Fiona Stanley Hospital. What are the mistakes
at Fiona Stanley, and what has gone wrong at Fiona Stanley? Is something wrong
with the Serco contract? No. Did the Under Treasurer say that something is
wrong with the contract? No, he did not. He complained about the lack of time
he had to scrutinise the contract. I can say that Treasury people were involved
in that contract all along the way; in fact, a person contracted to the
Department of Treasury was on the organising committee the whole time, right
through the full development of that contract—a Treasury-contracted
person. There was involvement. The Under Treasurer was, to use his words, ''pissed
off'' in the end with the time he had to look at the final contract, but
I can tell members that a few people in health might have been ''pissed
off'' with him as well, in terms of how a very detailed and complex
contract was worked through with Treasury.
Mr R.H. Cook : You're
saying Marney is a liar; is that right?
Dr K.D. HAMES : No,
I did not say that.
Mr R.H. Cook : You're
saying he was involved all along.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Why does the member for Kwinana not go back through Hansard and read what I said.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Kwinana, if you want a supplementary question, you will
get a supplementary question. We are not going into short questions.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It was a difficult contract. What mistakes were made with the
whole thing? Two were made in my view. One was the time that we set for the
opening in April. It was a construction site up until December. I went there
just before that to do something with the media and there were workers
everywhere—painters, carpenters and electricians right through the
building.
Mr
R.H. Cook : There was nothing wrong with the construction site; it was your
department's work that was at fault.
Dr K.D. HAMES : The
difficulty was the time we set. It is our fault; we set a time that only gave
us three months to go from a construction site to the opening of the hospital.
It was not enough. The other problem we had was with health information
technology. Health IT was not able to get together all the programs we needed
to get the hospital open and we made a determination—the director
general and I, in conjunction with the other ministers in cabinet—that
the opening needed to be delayed to ensure the safety of patients coming to
that hospital. That is the six-month delay and we regret that occurring, but
this is a program that has happened over many, many years to get to that final
stage of the contract. Those two things were a problem.
What did it cost us? It cost us $18 million for the delay of
six months in the contract and that was because the contract contained a
mitigation clause. What was the other cost? There was another $30 million
because separately to that we made a decision to phase in the opening and not
to try to have it just over a month as had previously been planned. There was
cost involved with that; there was the $30 million to Serco and $75 million for
having to employ people over those six months who are still working in two
different hospitals. They are the extra costs.
[Interruption from the gallery.]
The SPEAKER :
Excuse me, that lady with the camera there taking photos, please no photos in
the chamber.
Dr K.D. HAMES :
There has been a huge amount of work. We are very proud of what has happened in
the end. The fact is that there is some delay and that has a cost. Compare that
with the Office of Shared Services' $1 billion loss; that is like
building a children's hospital and then burning it down! Through the
Labor government's program, through its former leader, it wasted $1 billion.
I could have used that; I could have built another hospital with that $1 billion.
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