A question about the number of hospital beds in a maternity ward at a hospital should solicit a fairly straightforward response.
A hospital would be expected to have these numbers on hand and even if they didn't it's easy enough to go down to the ward and physically count the number of beds.
But it took health bureaucrats three months to answer a question about how many beds there were in Calvary Bruce Public Hospital's maternity ward, documents have shown.
Emails show health officials debated whether to provide the physical or "funded" number of beds. There were also variances in data pulled by different bureaucrats.
Officials eventually agreed to answer the question based on the physical number of beds, which was double the number of "funded" beds.
The question
Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley asked a question-on-notice on June 3 of last year, about midwifery services at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Bruce Public Hospital.
Among the questions was one about how many beds have been in the maternity units at Canberra Hospital and Calvary in each year since 2016.
On June 15, 2022, an official from ACT Health provided a response which answered the question about beds at Calvary.
The response showed there had been 19 beds in the ward from 2016-17 to 2018-19 and 18 beds in the ward between 2019-20 to 2021-22.
But that wasn't the end of the story.
What's the methodology?
A week later, on June 23, another official from ACT Health sought clarification on the methodology used to count beds at Calvary. The official wanted to make sure the same method was used to count beds at both Canberra Hospital and Calvary.
A response was sent four days later, which said: "When CHS are 'counting' beds, we use the number of beds that are 'funded'."
However, on July 1, Calvary provided a new response and the number of beds increased to 27 in 2016-17 and 2017-18 and 30 beds from 2018-19 onwards.
"The beds now represent physical bed capacity numbers, these are NOT funded bed capacity numbers," the response said.
Ms Castley also asked about the average length of stay in Calvary's maternity ward. However, data analysts had pulled different sets of data and they could not guarantee what was the most accurate.
The office of ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith messaged health officials on July 5 to seek an update on the responses.
The response, which said there were 30 beds, was cleared by Calvary the following day at around 2.20pm.
Funded or physical number?
Two hours later, an ACT Health official messaged a colleague questioning whether to use the numbers provided by Calvary.
"Calvary have revised their original bed numbers from funded to physical bed capacity ... assume we want to only use funded beds?" the email said.
The official also questioned whether the answer about the average length of stay should be accepted given the discrepancies in data.
Between July 19 to July 25 there was a series of emails to seek an update on the responses. This applied to a number of responses in the questions from Ms Castley.
On July 27, an update showed a draft response had been cleared, however, officials were still trying to determine whether the methodology used by Canberra Health Services and Calvary was the same.
But a draft response on August 2 did not include the number of beds in Canberra Hospital's maternity unit.
On August 5, the issue of the number of beds in the maternity ward at Calvary was raised again. An email from a Calvary official referenced a question which asked about another discrepancy.
"When we calculate the three maternity type wards here it is 34 beds. Please let us know what the variance is - I'm sure it is to do with methodology?" the email said.
Days later, on August 8, the same official from Calvary said he was "going around in circles with our performance and data people". The official asked for more information.
In response, an ACT Health official asked what areas were included in the answer where it said there were 30 beds in the maternity ward.
This email also said there was another question-on-notice being answered at the same time which also included bed numbers. For that question-on-notice officials were providing funded bed numbers, not physical bed numbers.
On August 15, an official said an update was needed to ensure both questions-on-notice counted beds using the same methodology. A week later, on August 22, officials confirmed the answers for both questions used the same methodology, being the number of beds.
But on September 20, officials from ACT Health were still seeking confirmation about answers provided by Calvary around the average length of stay and average cost of an overnight stay in the maternity unit.
The answer?
The question appeared to be signed off on September 20 and an answer was published online on November 7.
The final answer said the number of maternity beds in Calvary was 34, and this included beds in the maternity ward, birth suite, birth centre and special care nursery.
Under standing orders, ministers and directorates should provide a response to a question-on-notice within 30 days.
If a response cannot be provided in that timeframe, the minister can be asked about the delay in the Assembly, which Ms Castley did about this question on August 2.
Ms Stephen-Smith responded: "We are awaiting input from Calvary Public Hospital to complete the response to that very detailed question."
