Page 2287 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 1993
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to run it. All the way, through all of these memos, all of the people who looked at it came back to the idea that it needed to be at Calvary because if we are to provide a quality care facility the first thing we need to be able to do is to fund the thing.
Mr Berry made a number of comments, both this morning and in his speech, about the terms of reference that were given to Professor Ian Maddocks and Dr Ruth Redpath when Mr Humphries rightly decided to ask some people who actually knew something about it, some experts, some consultants, to have a look at it. The terms of reference that Mr Humphries gave these two consultants were as follows, and I quote directly from the report:
The consultants were asked to advise on:
Likely directions for palliative care services for the next decade
Management and structure of service provision
Preferred location of the hospice facility
Comments on design and size capability.
They were not asked whether it should be at Calvary or Woden, but where it would be best to put it. There were no preconceived ideas, just a clean slate. Interestingly, they then had discussions with representatives of the Hospice Society, the palliative care team, the Calvary Hospital executive, the director of community nursing, medical and nursing staff at Woden Valley Hospital, the palliative care services working party, the deputy director and executive officers of the hospital redevelopment project - and the list goes on and on.
Mr De Domenico: But not the ALP platform?
MRS CARNELL: No, not the ALP platform. They consulted widely and in all of these discussions the consultants were made aware, to quote them, of the long history of involvement of the Little Company of Mary in hospice work and the enthusiasm which the executive of Calvary Hospital and the Hospice Society had for the establishment of an in-patient hospice facility on the Calvary site. Apart from a lot of very interesting work that they did on the appropriate direction of palliative care generally, they said:
"Hospice" should be seen as a program rather than a place ... Each of the three focal points: Hospital, Home and Hospice is a necessary component of the Program, and each must involve the Palliative Care Team.
They went on to say that a hospice requires continuing access to hospital diagnostic and treatment facilities - that is, meals facilities, a pain clinic, pharmacy support, medical support and diagnostic facilities. The report recommended that the hospice service should be comprehensive, embracing the needs of patients facing terminal illness, wherever they are placed, in hospital, at home or in the hospice. They said:
This will be achieved by establishing a single network comprising the two major hospitals, the hospice and the community program served by a single team under one director.
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