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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (18 November) . . Page.. 4226 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

Australian Health Care Agreement delivers real improvements to the ACT. In signing the agreement the ACT won concessions from the Commonwealth in the areas of general practice and aged care.

Mr Smyth: Assisting programs!

MS MacDONALD: Mr Speaker, I ask that I be heard in silence.

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!

MS MacDONALD: The Commonwealth agreed to extend its outer metropolitan GP incentive scheme to areas of GP shortage in Canberra. GPs moving from inner areas of the six state capitals are eligible for up to $30,000 to help them establish a practice here as long as they agree to stay here for at least three years. This should deliver an increased opportunity for the key suburban areas of Canberra to increase their GP presence. The more GPs we can encourage here and the more primary health care services we can provide, the less pressure there will be on our hospitals.

I note with interest the recent advertisement placed for GPs and would like to personally congratulate and support the minister on this initiative. The Commonwealth has also agreed to fund, jointly with the ACT government, after-hours GP clinics at ACT hospitals. The ACT government has provided $700,000 over two years to support the Canberra after-hours locum medical service, CALMS. Commonwealth support will build on this initiative, with a revised model of after-hours GP services being developed in consultation with the ACT Division of General Practice and CALMS.

One-off funding of over $6 million has been made available to the ACT over the next five years for the Pathways Home program. This program is designed to support service improvements associated with the transition of people from hospital to home. Through the development of the Pathways Home program, the Commonwealth and the ACT will aim to maximise quality of life and independence, particularly for the older person, following hospital treatment; strengthen capacity for service provision; foster a culture of responding to the needs of patients, particularly older Australians; and improve the measurement of performance in this area.

The Commonwealth has also agreed to support the ACT's objective of providing improved transitional care for people who are waiting in hospital for nursing home places to become available. In summary, the new Australian Health Care Agreement negotiated by the Stanhope Labor government, which will provide for more resources and better services, has delivered real and tangible benefits for the ACT community.

Mr Smyth wants us to believe that the financial situation affecting ACT Health is dire. The reality is quite different. There is no blow-out of the hospital budget, although this is very much typical of the inflammatory rhetoric preferred by the Leader of the Opposition. You cannot simply look at the operating results of the department to come to the financial result for ACT Health in 2002-03. You have to include the operating results for the Canberra Hospital and ACT Community Care for the first six months of the financial year.

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