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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 1528 ..
MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister and Minister for Health. Mrs Carnell, I note from recent media reports that the new Commonwealth Government has given the go-ahead to a trial of a new style of health care called coordinated care. Can you explain what coordinated care means for the residents of the ACT?
MRS CARNELL: I am very pleased to get that question from Mr Hird and I am very interested - - -
Mr Berry: You were not too pleased about the earlier two, though.
MRS CARNELL: I am very happy with the other two as well. It is very disappointing that those opposite have chosen to laugh at this question, even though this morning Ms Reilly and, I think, Ms Tucker made some comments about how important it was in our health system to start focusing on preventative health care to keep people out of our critical system and how that was going to be the only way that in the longer term we could really bring health budgets under control. It is interesting that this afternoon they snigger, they laugh and they think it is simply unimportant.
This area of coordinated care is probably the single most important change in our health system that we are likely to see in the foreseeable future. The okay from the Federal Government to go ahead with our coordinated care trial will mean for the first time that we will be able to provide the appropriate care based upon the needs of particular patients, particularly patients with complex problems, people with multiple conditions or people who have such conditions as insulin-dependent diabetes. In the past we have always funded services, not the patients themselves. It has been up to the patient to access what service suits them, assuming that a service exists. I notice that again Ms McRae sighs.
Ms McRae: Why do you not just make a ministerial statement? Boring!
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms McRae, you will have a chance to ask a question in a moment. For the time being, the Chief Minister is answering someone else.
MRS CARNELL: She obviously does not believe in coordinated care and what is a significant change in the way we fund people, particularly those with the most complex needs. Coordinated care is a very practical way of ensuring that people with complex needs get better care in the most cost-effective way; but, more importantly, it is a way of ensuring that these people do not end up getting sick and having to access our critical care system.
Instead of a patient having to deal with a whole range of different service providers, the coordinated care approach brings together funding services from the Commonwealth, from the non-government sectors and from the ACT sector at one point that focuses on the patient. If a patient, shall we say, is an insulin-dependent diabetic and needs podiatrist care, foot care, then that will be provided. If the patient needs a GP, that will be provided. If they need a specialist, that will be provided. If they need respite care or if
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