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An incident having occurred in the gallery - . . Page.. 1193 ..

The department set up very extensive consultative mechanisms. There was a residents committee and there was a carers and families committee. I relied on the department to conduct those consultations, and all my advice was that those consultations were appropriately conducted. But it was always fundamental to Labor's plans for the future of nursing home care that the ACT Government would retain a direct hands-on role in providing care. In particular, we saw the acute levels of care that are provided at Upper Jindalee as a very essential role for government. It is very clear that the patients who are being cared for at Upper Jindalee often have much higher levels of need. Many would find great difficulty in being accepted in non-government provided homes, and, in particular, they would have great difficulty in finding appropriate levels of care in the for-profit sector of care. Whereas there was discussion last year about options for the non-government community-based sector to take up some additional role, we are very concerned that the announcements in the last few weeks, again made in a period when this Assembly was not sitting, are targeting the future of all beds at Jindalee for the for-profit private sector; that Jindalee is to be sold to the highest bidder.

An incident having occurred in the gallery -

MR SPEAKER: Order! The gallery will come to order.

MR CONNOLLY: It is highly likely that the highest bidder will be the for-profit private sector. Labor is very concerned that Mrs Carnell's promises in relation to Upper Jindalee are but a smokescreen for what is to be a very lucrative real estate deal for whoever purchases it.

An incident having occurred in the gallery -

MR SPEAKER: Order! I ask the gallery to come to order, so that this debate may continue and may be heard.

MR CONNOLLY: Mr Speaker, the Jindalee site in total, both Upper and Lower, has never been appropriate for nursing home care, as I indicated earlier. It is a very hilly site. It is quite removed from the type of social amenities that, ideally, you would place a nursing home near. Ideally, you would place a nursing home in an area of land that is flat, so that residents who are ambulatory are able to get about. You would place it near other social facilities like shops, schools and churches, so that residents who are able to get out can integrate into the community. The great problem with Jindalee is that it is in splendid isolation on the hill in Narrabundah. It commands quite spectacular views, but the site is quite inappropriate in terms of a facility to integrate people back into the community.

We had been floating the idea that nursing home services in the ACT might cease to be provided on that site by government or by anybody else. Upper Jindalee is less important for ambulatory patients and is a better designed facility, and it does provide a very high level of care for very high needs patients; but, in the long run, even that had its limitations.

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