Page 2399 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022
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This budget will also deliver new and upgraded state-of-the-art clinical equipment to Canberra Hospital, including medical linear accelerator, PET scanner, CT scanner, nuclear medicine gamma camera, and nuclear medicine spec CT. Further equipment upgrades are also funded at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, through more than $4.6 million investment in replacing and enhancing critical equipment, including a new ultrasound and mobile x-ray unit.
We are also investing, Madam Speaker, in community health facilities to progress, design and upgrade facilities. We are making health services safer for the health workforce across acute and community services through upgrades to nurse call and duress alarms.
Through the budget we are also funding the delivery of the south side hydrotherapy pool at Tuggeranong Lakeside Leisure Centre. This was an important election commitment from the government.
Madam Speaker, we are delivering more beds, more buildings, more state-of-the-art equipment and even better health care facilities for the ACT community.
MS ORR: Thank you Madam Speaker. Minister, how will these health infrastructure investments benefit the Canberra community and its access to health?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Thank you Madam Speaker and I thank Ms Orr for the supplementary question.
The investments we have made in health infrastructure through the 2022-23 budget are considered and important next steps.
They continue expanding ACT’s health services as our community grows, support our community in accessing even better care, and support our workforce to deliver exceptional services across the ACT. This record investment, of more than $820 million over the next four years, will mean we can continue to build new facilities and upgrade existing areas of our health services. So Canberrans can access the right treatment, in the right place, at the right time.
The next steps of the Canberra Hospital master plan will facilitate further in-patient beds, design costing and demolition for a new pathology building and in-patient buildings, and particularly important for consumers, improve public way finding at Canberra Hospital. This last was a significant issue we heard from consumers through the Canberra Hospital master plan consultations.
Building on the work we have already completed, and is currently underway, the next steps of the masterplan will mean we can deliver a sustainable health service to meet our demand into the future. The new and upgraded state-of-the-art clinical equipment at both Canberra Hospital and Calvary Public Hospital will enhance delivery of a range of treatments, including radiation therapy treatment for cancer.
Through all of this funding we are delivering on ACT Labor’s election commitments, and we are improving access to health care now and into the future. That is what Labor governments do.
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