Page 937 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 March 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
of the redeployment from the date of redeployment and there will be no cost to the Territory. As well, I am assured that arrangements are in place to make up for the diminution in the personnel available in the ACT region.
Slow-Stream Rehabilitation Unit
MR BERRY: My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. What are the projected recurrent costs for the slow-stream rehabilitation unit to be located at the Acton Peninsula? What will be the impact of this service on the budget for the current rehabilitation and aged care unit?
MR HUMPHRIES: I gave details of all the costs known to the Government the other day.
Ms Follett: No, only of the capital costs.
MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Follett says that that was only capital costs. I will take on notice the part of the question that deals with recurrent costs. I cannot recall what they are offhand. They were something in the order of $900,000, I recall; but I am happy to confirm whether that figure is correct.
The impact on rehabilitation services at the Woden Valley Hospital is not significant. The services provided there are obviously complementary to what will be provided at the centre at the Acton Peninsula site. I would not think it could be said that the splitting of those services or the creation of the slow-stream unit at the Acton site was in any way a loss of service or a decline in the quality of services available in this area.
Certainly as far as the Government is concerned this facility is much needed in the ACT. It could be located close to a hospital. In our view, it could equally well be located away from a hospital, given that the emphasis is not on hospital-type services or hospital-type treatment but rather on rehabilitation towards moving people out of the hospital system and back into their homes or nursing homes or whatever it might be. So, I do not think we could expect any adverse impact on the rehabilitation services at Woden as a result of these changes.
MR BERRY: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Will the capital costs that were announced come out of the redevelopment budget? When does the Minister anticipate that they will be committed?
MR HUMPHRIES: The answer is no, they will not, because they are not part of the redevelopment process. They are quite separate from that. It may be that at some stage the construction of that unit will be managed under the redevelopment process. The redevelopment process consists essentially only of those things that were encompassed in
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .