ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr WOOD: 2.1.
Mr CONLAN: Can I ask a question about the broader appropriation for health. Is that going
to fall into
this? I know the member for Araluen, closed off non specific …
A Person Unknown: That was generic.
Mr CHAIRMAN: Non output specific was right at the end. Member for Araluen was agency specific.
Minister, do you mind if we do Agency Specific (Whole of Government Related Questions) now?
Mr CONLAN: Is that non-specific output?
Mr CHAIRMAN: At the very end there is a catch-all which we can do it. We can do it either way.
Mr VATSKALIS: When we started we were asked are the question generic for the agency, they said
no. Why are we going back?
Mr CHAIRMAN: There are two options, the non-output specific budget questions, which we are going
to get to, they can ask those questions then. The question is whether you want them then or now.
Mr VATSKALIS: No, we can do them. Let us go to the output.
Output 2.1 – Admitted Patient Services
Mr CHAIRMAN: We are at Output 2.1.
Mr CONLAN: Minister, the budget allocations for our various hospitals - and I will stay with Alice
Springs and Darwin for the moment - what is the over-run for Alice Springs hospital and
Royal Darwin
Hospital?
Mr RYAN: At this stage we are not looking at an over-run for the department, we are looking to
contain all possible expenditure this financial year.
Mr CONLAN: Minister, no over-run for Alice Springs or Darwin Hospital, is that right?
Mr VATSKALIS: As the Chief Financial Officer said, we are trying to contain …
Mr RYAN: As an agency as a whole we are appropriated to cover all services, and
at this stage we
are planning to come in on budget this financial year. Any internal divisional over runs would be met
internally.
Mr CONLAN: The $245m allocated for Royal Darwin hospital last year, you are going to come in at or
under that figure, is that right?
Mr RYAN: Yes.
Mr CONLAN: For Alice Springs as well? Minister, $118m was allocated last year for Alice Springs
hospital, are you telling me you will come in at that figure or under that figure by the end of the
financial year?
Mr RYAN: What we report on externally is admitted patients and non-admitted
patients as an output
as the whole. It includes more than just the hospitals, so what we are saying is, as a department, we
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
will manage our funds to meet all outputs.
Mr CONLAN: However, $118m was allocated for Alice Springs hospital in 2009-10, and this year it is
$129m. The running and management of Alice Springs hospital will come in under or at $118m.
Mr RYAN: As a hospital they may come
in slightly over, but as a department we will cover that.
Mr CONLAN: That was my original question. What is the overrun for the Alice Springs Hospital?
Mr VATSKALIS: The argument here is that planning for health is something you cannot plan. You
only need a event to actually blow your budget away. For example, last year we had the swine flu
epidemic, during which the Alice Springs Hospital had to admit so many people into intensive care the
budget actually went over the top. However, the overall budget with departments is well known. The
overall budget for all the hospitals is known. As the CFO said, we are going to maintain that budget,
we are not going to be able to run over on that budget. However, there will be internal reallocation of
funding to cover it, even if there is an overrun in one hospital or another.
I know you have asked
this question before, which gives me the suspicion that your party’s platform
here is to cut the overrun of any hospital, not allowing the hospital to blow a budget. Irrespective,
there are going to be certain circumstances which leads me to be really worried about what you would
do if you had government.
One of the best ways to actually control the overrun - and I have seen in the past twice - is cut staff
down. Cut nurses like you did in 1996, 1999, with the CRESAP, and Planning for Growth. There are
really alarm bells ringing about the intention of your party if it comes to
government, and what it is
going to do with health.
Mr CONLAN: Thanks for that, minister. Essentially, what is the overrun for the Alice Springs Hospital?
Mr Ryan has indicated that it might come in slightly over. Regardless of that stale rhetoric that we
continue to hear - we hear a lot of this in the Chamber. This is estimates, so if we can get to the
specific question.
Alice Springs Hospital in 2009-10 was allocated $118m for the operation of Alice Springs Hospital. Mr
Ryan has indicated it might come in slightly over that by the end of this financial year. Can you please
indicate how much over that it might come in?
Mr RYAN: Just to clarify, the budget for Alice Springs Hospital is actually about $127m for 2009-10.
They may go slightly over, but we would be talking about 1% to 2%, possibly.
Mr CONLAN: Well, in a last year’s media release, you stated the allocation of Alice
Springs Hospital
was $118m.
Mr RYAN: That would have been based on the budget data known at the time of publishing the 2009-
10 budget. During the financial year, we would have a whole heap of arrangements that would
increase that budget, either through extended Commonwealth agreements or additional initiative
funding coming from the NT government.
Mr CONLAN: You are saying that you allocated $118m last year and, for some unforseen
circumstances, it has pushed it out by an extra – what did you say it was? - $127m?
Mr RYAN: The budget would move the specific funding agreements, where we
have had increases to
our funding, that the budget to the hospital would have moved. It is now $127m.
Mr CONLAN: For 2009-10 or 2010-11?