Page 2389 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 1991
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though it might be. So, on that score, Mr Moore, you have our assurance that we have a commitment to the provision of quality community health services from community health centres, and the provision of those services will be developed in consultation with the community.
On the issue of dental services for youngsters, a consultant has been engaged to look at it across the board. We have inherited difficulties with the dental service.
Mr Humphries: So did we.
MR BERRY: Hang on a minute. The former Government - - -
Mr Humphries: Which former government?
MR BERRY: The former Labor Government had difficulties with that issue because of the professional structures that we both inherited. Unfortunately, the Alliance Government was slow to get off the mark on the issue, and it takes as much as 15 months for some services to be available to adults.
The issue of schools is being considered in the context of a general review of dental health services, but at the end of the day we intend to provide the best services possible to people at school. I do not want anybody to read between the lines in my statement "the best services possible" and say that we are going to reduce them by a significant amount; it is about providing better dental services for more people in the ACT.
Hospice
DR KINLOCH: My question is addressed to Mr Berry as Minister for Health. The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister have both mentioned the aged, and I must say that I join with others who welcome some of those comments. My question arises from a broadcast that Mr Berry had with Ms Harris yesterday on 2CN, in which the question of the hospice arose. I detected a glimmer of hope. Could the Minister assure us that the hospice proposal has not been put on the back-burner, has not been set aside, and that the plan for a hospice will go ahead?
MR BERRY: The plan for a hospice will go ahead? Which plan was that? You could not get a commitment out of the former Health Minister on when the hospice would be built.
Ms Maher: It was one of the major things in our Social Policy Committee report on the needs of the ageing.
Mr Humphries: It was there in black and white, Wayne.
MR BERRY: The best he could do was say, "Well, the hospital redevelopment will take five to seven years, and it is included in that".
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