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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4373 ..

There are other initiatives. We are introducing a cancer clinical stream and a rehabilitation and aged care service clinical stream to improve coordination of patient care across the territory. ACT Health has engaged in joint planning with the Southern Area Health Service on all major health initiatives, with a single satellite dialysis service, a single cancer service and an upgrading of Southern Area’s secondary level service being some of the recent initiatives under way. This, of course, all works towards the objective of reducing pressure on our tertiary hospital from the surrounding region. Work is well under way in relation to a sub-acute facility, to better manage the transition of our patients from hospital to home and better provide for patients with psychogeriatric conditions.

We are working closely with the ANU to build and develop a premier medical school that will train and attract high-quality medical resources for our community. I cannot, again, overstate the significance of that investment. Labor put the money in; Labor funded that agreement; Labor made that agreement happen. It is important for the ACT because those doctors who train here are more likely to stay here. And that is the challenge for our community as our GP workforce ages: more doctors train here, more doctors are likely to stay here.

One of the reasons we have had trouble attracting doctors to the ACT is that they do not know the ACT. They have trained in other capital cities; they like those capital cities; they do not want to go somewhere else. But if they develop their connections here, they are more likely to stay here. Those years of training are very important for making that connection.

We have also, of course, provided over $10 million to the University of Canberra to create a new school in relation to allied health training. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and radiation therapists are all now possible because of our investment in the University of Canberra to again address a workforce shortage.

Of course the government is close to finalising agreement to establish our new after-hours GP services at both of our public hospitals, hand in hand with the Canberra after-hours local medical service and local GPs. We are working closely with the Commonwealth to expand our aged care bed stocks. I announced, even today, new measures designed to improve access to care for aged care type patients who are currently given no option but to stay in an acute care bed in a hospital. We now have provision, through new packages. for many of those people to be looked after in their own home or in a non-hospital setting, with intensive community nursing support and rehabilitation support, freeing up beds for our emergency department patients.

All these things, of course, do not for a moment seek to underplay the significance of the pressures we face. We have serious problems and we need serious solutions. We do not need glib throwaway lines about who is to blame, why it all went wrong and who should be punished. What we need are serious responses to what is a worldwide and certainly an Australia-wide problem when it comes to pressure on our emergency departments. That said, of course, it is worth recognising that we still have the best response times in all the clinical categories for triage in emergency departments in the country. The most recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report confirms that. But it is still not good enough. We need to do more and we will continue to do more.

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