Page 1685 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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I expect the interim board to move quickly to recruit a chief executive for the new corporation and to develop a firm proposal for the future structure and operation of the enterprise. I am hopeful that this new and exciting business will be in place before the end of the year.
I am sure the Assembly will agree that the Commonwealth Government has failed over many years to meet its responsibilities in the ACT. It has handed over to the people of Canberra a public hospital system which is run down and costly and in need of substantial restructuring and upgrading. The previous Government sought special funding from the Commonwealth to assist the ACT community to meet the cost of essential works. This Government has pressed the Commonwealth to provide $150m to help us upgrade and modernise our public hospitals. So far this has not brought a response - and it is quite some time, I might remind the Assembly, since that original request was made.
In the face of significant economic pressures, the ACT Government has recognised the importance of providing high-quality health services in Canberra and has made a major financial commitment to upgrading our public hospitals. This commitment involves the development of a principal hospital at Woden Valley with 600 to 700 beds. This arrangement will markedly improve the quality of services by providing increased opportunities and encouragement for teaching, research, peer review and quality assurance processes.
The transfer of services from Royal Canberra to create the principal hospital and contribute to the expansion of Calvary to a fully developed 300-bed hospital is an important part of this strategy. Expanding Calvary public hospital to its full capacity will result in the closure of the 50 private beds presently operating within the building. In order to achieve an appropriate public/private mix of services, approval has been given for the development of a new private hospital of around 150 beds to be located in north Canberra. This means that the capacity of the private sector to provide services complementary to those of the public sector will be maximised and brought more into line with the level of private services available in other States.
The steering committee report on public hospital redevelopment emphasised the need to take action quickly to commence work on the redevelopment program to ensure that people in Canberra and surrounding regions have access to improved quality services at the earliest possible time. By quickly expanding Calvary to its full capacity and fast tracking planning and design for new facilities, we will complete this massive program of upgrading and improving our public hospitals within the shortest possible time frame.
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