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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3536 ..

departments. This is a record this government will work with our health professionals to sustain and, indeed, improve.

The government has already announced a range of initiatives. These include: a nine-bed emergency medicine unit and the introduction of rapid assessment and response teams at the Canberra Hospital at a cost of $1.251 million; an eight-bed clinical decision unit and four multiday medical beds at the Calvary hospital, $1.062 million; $11.368 million over four years to increase the number of beds in the intensive care unit at the Canberra Hospital; and redevelopment of the emergency department at the Canberra Hospital to enhance patient flow at a cost of $3.584 million.

More people turn up at our emergency departments sicker than in the past, partly because they cannot access GP services or because the services are too costly. ACT Health is finalising arrangements with GPs and the Australian government to introduce improved after-hours GP services on hospital campuses to help further reduce waiting times for low urgency patients. This should make some small contribution to the overall load on the emergency department.

The government is working closely with the Australian government to attract more GPs to Canberra.

Mr Smyth: That’s not what the document says.

MS MacDONALD: Mr Deputy Speaker, I heard Mr Smyth in silence. I would ask that he do the same and pay me the same courtesy.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

MS MacDONALD: This is proving difficult due to a national shortage of GPs. However, the number of GP training places in areas of the ACT with shortages has increased from three in 2003 to 13 in 2004. This should see a flow-on effect of increased numbers of newly trained GPs into the work force.

The college has called for more nursing home beds. In the context of signing the Australian health care agreements in August 2003, the ACT government reached agreement with the Commonwealth to use 50 provisional high-care places to provide transitional care for people waiting in ACT hospitals for aged care placement. The aim of the service is to provide a more appropriate restorative, therapeutic and social environment for older people to maximise their capacity to return home or to lower level residential aged care. The service would also enable the beds currently occupied by nursing home type patients to become available for people requiring acute care.

The federal budget has identified up to 2,000 new transitional care places to be provided over three years, under a cost-shared model of care with the states and the territories, to assist older people in making the transition from hospital to aged care. No decision has been made on the number of these places to be allocated to the ACT.

ACT Health is currently actively seeking comments on its draft clinical services plan. A key part of that draft plan is estimating future requirements for inpatient beds. The material provided by the college will be a useful contribution to development of the plan.

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