Jillian Skinner MPMember for North Shore |
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Thursday 3 April 2008
Despite being asked three times in Parliament today, Health Minister Reba Meagher has refused to name those hospitals being audited for manipulating performance data, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said.
“Health Minister Reba Meagher was given three opportunities to explain which hospitals were being investigated, and refused to give the answers to the public,” Mrs Skinner said.
“There is no transparency in Reba Meagher’s system if she refuses to name which hospitals are being audited for data manipulation,” she said.
“No community in NSW can have any faith that the performance data from their local hospital has not been manipulated for political advantage.
“If Reba Meagher was serious about having a transparent audit process she would publicly release the findings of the investigation into Gosford and Ryde hospitals manipulation of performance data conducted last year.
“I have written to the Auditor General asking him to investigate whether there has been systemic manipulation of hospital performance data in NSW.
“As long as Reba Meagher remains silent on this issue, a cloud will hang over the credibility of the Iemma Government’s hospital performance data.
“When Morris Iemma was Health Minister, the Auditor General found in 2003 that waiting lists at five hospitals – Prince of Wales, Bankstown, St George, St Vincent's and Sydney hospitals – were all falsified.
“Despite an investigation five years ago that found hospitals were manipulating official performance data, the Iemma Government has failed to stamp it out.
“It’s time that Health Minister Reba Meagher came clean and simply indicated which hospitals are being investigated, and what previous reports have found and recommended,” Mrs Skinner said.