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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2952 ..

I am also pleased to see that there is continuing help for people who have sustained severe injuries following the bushfires. The real concern I have is the lack of attention being given to or the voices being heard of those needing respite care in our community. According to some of the letters I have received, they are going to end up becoming a further drain on the health service. That is a bit disappointing, but overall, I think I have made my points on the things that I am pleased about.

Finally, I applaud the government for the expansion of the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in Gungahlin Outreach Clinic, but we still need to be looking—if we can and when we are asked—at the real need for respite care in our community.

MR PRATT (9.21): I rise to talk about an issue I have raised a number of times and will continue to raise because not much action is being taken—that is, the need for or existence of a Lanyon surgery capability. The Lanyon district has four or five suburbs and 5,000 or 6,000 people. The residents do not have a surgery to service them and have to go to the Calwell or Chisholm shops for routine surgery appointments, which is quite a distance. I think we can do better than that.

I was pleased to see that the Minister for Health and Minister for Planning and departmental staff went to Tuggeranong Community Centre to talk to community leaders and commercial and other stakeholders about the impasse that exists with the allocation of land that had previously been made and how it can be resolved. A great deal of the problem is due simply to commercial enterprise. There do not seem to be too many players, in a commercial sense, who are prepared to commit themselves and there is clearly an urgent need. I hoped that a leg-up, some assistance, would be provided by way of funding in the appropriation or that some policy initiative would accompany the appropriations. This issue is still outstanding.

I am not going to criticise the government at all, but I point out that it is an ongoing issue. I ask the government to continue to look at this issue. Mr Hargreaves agrees with me because he has been to the same meetings. That is one of the most important issues for the Brindabella electorate.

Another issue I would like to raise is whether the government has considered allowing ambulance stations to provide first-line, low-level surgery support, a service they provided a couple of decades ago. This would alleviate the need for people having to drive to Canberra Hospital for weekend injuries which occur on football fields and in the backyard. This Assembly—and the government too—could look at whether or not ambulance services could reactivate the rather old-fashioned first-line support service. I know there are arguments against that because of manpower, but, with some creativity, there may be ways we can overcome some of those hurdles. The ability to provide some sort of a service, particularly at weekends, may alleviate the burden.

Ms Tucker: You mean the old first-aid service?

MR PRATT: Yes, something like that. This matter deserves to be looked at in order to improve first-line medical capability, particularly for those living in the deep south—

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