Page 2895 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
planning and construction of the convalescent facility take place as a matter of urgency -
I stress the words "as a matter of urgency" -
a 20-bed hospice be developed;
the government implement the recommendation in the Kearney Report -
of half a year beforehand -
to build a new nursing home and fund this through the eventual sale of the Jindalee Nursing Home; and
both the government and the private sector continue to build self-care units suitable for the ageing.
In tabling the report, Mr Wood said:
It found that the most urgent need was for a convalescent home to which patients could be moved from acute care wards in hospitals to prepare them for their return home.
The committee learned that the ageing, and in particular, the frail aged, were particularly susceptible to the immobilisation syndrome which compounded the health problem for which they were admitted to hospital. So a convalescent home might be seen as our first priority.
In saying that, he was emphasising some comments made by Dr Brendan Kearney in his report of the previous year on the ACT's health services. Dr Kearney said:
The absence of an ACT convalescent/slow-stream/rehabilitation facility is another factor aggravating the problems for aged care. Elderly people need more time to recover from illnesses or injury prior to being discharged into the community, or to a nursing home. At present, they must remain in hospital.
The fact is - even Mr Berry acknowledges this, from his earlier comments - that the cost of maintaining a person in a hospital bed is far greater than in nursing homes. The need of elderly patients in this community for an appropriate midway point between a nursing home, or their own home for that matter, and a hospital is very serious indeed. The provision of a convalescent facility does not make sense only in social justice terms, if I might borrow from the Labor Party lexicon; it also makes financial sense. A facility like that will help reduce recurrent costs and will free up acute care beds in the hospital system and help ease the burden on our public hospital system.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .