ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr CONLAN: Minister, you said you will make the findings of the inquiry public. When do you intend
to do that?
Mr VATSKALIS: I will make the findings of the inquiry, together with the measures that the
department is going to put in place, public as soon as they are presented to me.
Mr CONLAN: And when do you expect that?
Mr VATSKALIS: Next week.
Mr CONLAN: Next week, okay.
Mr VATSKALIS: I will get a response next week, so soon afterwards, hopefully.
Mr CONLAN: Yes. All right, very good. I do have some questions about nuclear waste at RDH. I
believe …
Mr VATSKALIS: Yes.
Mr CONLAN: … is this part of 2.1?
Mr CHAIRMAN: It fits under Environmental Health Services, 4.1. The member for Nelson has some
questions to that output too.
That concludes consideration of Output 2.1. I am sorry, there are some answers at the back.
Ms CAHILL: I have the clarifications on timing. The refuelling for the
helicopter takes 15 minutes. The response time for when the helicopter is
tasked in Darwin is 30 minutes, but the anticipation is that that time will
reduce in the interim service because of the location of the team and, in an
emergency situation, there is the capacity to add another stretcher into the
helicopter if we need to. So, if we had a major multiple situation, for
example, a bus crash that happened just recently, that if they needed to,
they could actually get another stretcher in to assist with evacuating
patients.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Thank you very much for providing those answers for me.
Output 2.2 – Non-Admitted Patient Services
Mr CHAIRMAN: The committee will now move to Output 2.2, Non-Admitted Patient Services. Are
there any questions.
Mr CONLAN: I will just move very quickly on this, because we need to move through. Minister, just on
your estimates here for non-admitted specialist clinic occasions of service emergency department
attendances, how do you arrive at that figure? I am just curious to know how you arrive at the
estimate, for 2010-11, for example, it was 195 000. For non-admitted specialist clinic occasions of
service, up from 175 400, how does the department come to that figure?
Ms CAHILL: The differential between 2009-10 and 2010-11 and the jump that you see there in the
estimate is the result of changes and improvements in practice in our data entry and collection. When
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
doing the 2009-10 estimate there has been significant changes in the way in which we record and the
timeliness with which our data is entered, so the estimate was done when not all data may potentially
have been in there.
Subsequently, we have actually changed our practices and the way in which we get data entry so our
estimates are far more accurate than they have been in the past because of the improvement in our
data warehouse and our collection. Because the estimate for 2009-10 had already been done, that is
not able to be changed.
Mr CONLAN: I see, okay.
Ms CAHILL: So if we ran the estimate today based on the information that is in there now, we would
have seen that would have been increased and the subsequent increase between 2008-09, 2009-10
and 2010-11 would have been steadier.
Mr CONLAN: Okay, so an improvement of data collection essentially?
Ms CAHILL: Yes. An improvement in process and data collection and timeliness, and an investment
into the actual ability to get that information in a timely fashion and an improvement in the way in
which the data is collected.
Mr CONLAN: Okay, thank you. Minister, just regarding St John Ambulance, has the St John
Ambulance contract to provide road-based ambulance services been renewed following the expiry of
the current agreement on 30 June this year?
Mr VATSKALIS: Cabinet is being pursued to renew the contract for another three years and St John
Ambulance has been advised. However, we had discussions with St John Ambulance to get some
governance experts in order to improve their governance and improve their efficiency. We believe that
it is appropriate for St John Ambulance to perform that service to the community, the only service
provider in the Territory, and we support them in order improve their efficiency and have better
governance.
Mr CONLAN: Okay, so a three-year contract as of 30 June?
Mr VATSKALIS: Contract and negotiation are currently with my department to analyse.
Mr CONLAN: Are you able to provide the cost per year for that, or for the contract?
Mr VATSKALIS: That is part of the negotiations we are currently having with St John Ambulance, but
from 2007 to 2010 we have invested $44m to St John Ambulance, and we have funded a new 24/7
ambulance based in Palmerston in 2009-10 because of increased demand with the growth in
Palmerston and the rural area.
Mr CONLAN: But at this stage you cannot provide the cost of that contract because you are still
negotiating?
Mr VATSKALIS: No, because I said to you it is part of what we want from St John Ambulance and
part of what we will provide to support St John Ambulance; part of the contract may be the support we
provide could be an improved telecommunication system and others that would be part of the
contract.
Mr CONLAN: Minister, the department was advised to commence an assessment of road ambulance
services across the Northern Territory post-expiry of the St John Ambulance contract in 2010. Has
this occurred?
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