ACT health minister Simon Corbell has continued to deny planned bed numbers at the new University of Canberra hospital were cut, despite ACT Health saying the mix of overnight and day bed numbers had been "adjusted".
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Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson pursued Mr Corbell on the issue on Thursday, accusing him of downsizing plans from the original 200 beds. Mr Corbell now says there will be 140 overnight beds and 75 "day beds", or "day spaces". In a radio interview on Monday, he described the day spaces as "beds but they're not designed for overnight use".
Mr Corbell said there was no contradiction between his statements and ACT Health.
"The government's been very clear over the past two to three years that the capacity of the University of Canberra public hospital would be made up of a combination of overnight beds and day beds, or day spaces," he said.
"There's been no reduction in the capacity of the University of Canberra public hospital, that's the bottom line here."
He used the words "day beds" and or "day spaces" interchangeably as a simple way to explain capacity, he said.
Earlier, Greens minister Shane Rattenbury called on Mr Corbell to clarify. Thospital
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The debate was ignited by a statement from ACT Health saying once the decision had been made to have two acute hospitals (Canberra and Calvary) and one sub-acute hospital (the new University of Canberra hospital), it had consulted to "test" the plan to provide all sub-acute care at the new hospital. As a result, "the initial range of services was refined for a number of reasons, but mostly relating to the need for some patients and services to be on an acute hospital site".
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