Mr KIELY - 2004-10-12
Five minutes into the job and the shadow Health minister has it wrong already! Could the minister inform the House of progress on delivering upon the government’s election commitment to recruit an additional 75 nurses?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is absolutely true that, at the last election, we promised Territorians we would introduce an additional 75 nurses into our hospitals. Well, woops, we have overshot! We now have 97 additional funded positions in our five hospitals than at the time we inherited government - 97 funded positions.
Dr Lim: Funded positions!
Members injecting.
Dr Lim: You mislead Territorians all the time.
Dr TOYNE: Seventy-six of them already have incumbents in place. We are recruiting …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member for Greatorex well knows he cannot accuse my colleague of misleading the House and Territorians unless he does so by way of substantive motion, and I ask him to withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, withdraw please!
Dr LIM: I withdraw, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Because the minister does have a soft voice, could we listen to him with quiet - not too loud!
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. There are 97 positions; 76 with incumbents in them, and 21 being recruited at the moment. What sort of positions? Clinical nurse educators, nurse managers, renal nurses, critical care nurses and midwives. Ninety-seven additional positions into our hospital system is a significant increase in the capacity. It means more tasks can be attempted at all five of our hospitals. We can consolidate areas such as renal care and the ICU and High Dependency Units at Darwin and Alice Springs, and we also have a greater diversity of skills amongst the nurses that are employed within our hospital system.
We have kept our promise to Territorians made at the last election - we have more then kept it. By the end of this term of government, we believe there will be in excess of 100 additional nurses in our hospitals.
On this day commemorating the Bali bombings, I want to pay tribute to the amazing work that was done at Royal Darwin Hospital. The first victims arrived in Darwin 26 hours after the bombings. Of the 61 victims treated at Darwin hospital, 28 were in major trauma. It was an amazing effort by the staff who paid a huge price in regards to the trauma they suffered from the terrible things they saw during that time. I want to pay tribute to that again on this second anniversary.
Members: Hear, hear!
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is absolutely true that, at the last election, we promised Territorians we would introduce an additional 75 nurses into our hospitals. Well, woops, we have overshot! We now have 97 additional funded positions in our five hospitals than at the time we inherited government - 97 funded positions.
Dr Lim: Funded positions!
Members injecting.
Dr Lim: You mislead Territorians all the time.
Dr TOYNE: Seventy-six of them already have incumbents in place. We are recruiting …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member for Greatorex well knows he cannot accuse my colleague of misleading the House and Territorians unless he does so by way of substantive motion, and I ask him to withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, withdraw please!
Dr LIM: I withdraw, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Because the minister does have a soft voice, could we listen to him with quiet - not too loud!
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. There are 97 positions; 76 with incumbents in them, and 21 being recruited at the moment. What sort of positions? Clinical nurse educators, nurse managers, renal nurses, critical care nurses and midwives. Ninety-seven additional positions into our hospital system is a significant increase in the capacity. It means more tasks can be attempted at all five of our hospitals. We can consolidate areas such as renal care and the ICU and High Dependency Units at Darwin and Alice Springs, and we also have a greater diversity of skills amongst the nurses that are employed within our hospital system.
We have kept our promise to Territorians made at the last election - we have more then kept it. By the end of this term of government, we believe there will be in excess of 100 additional nurses in our hospitals.
On this day commemorating the Bali bombings, I want to pay tribute to the amazing work that was done at Royal Darwin Hospital. The first victims arrived in Darwin 26 hours after the bombings. Of the 61 victims treated at Darwin hospital, 28 were in major trauma. It was an amazing effort by the staff who paid a huge price in regards to the trauma they suffered from the terrible things they saw during that time. I want to pay tribute to that again on this second anniversary.
Members: Hear, hear!
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016