Page 3898 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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year’s budget through the growth that the government has provided. So, rather than missing this year’s budget, it is really about getting these things in place earlier. Rather than waiting for next year and having the wait, particularly for things like equipment—for example, the gamma camera replacement project that perhaps could have waited—it is nice to be able to get them on track and purchased and operating.
We are expecting that, over the next 10 to 15 years, the ACT will have a 60 per cent increase in the demand for nuclear medicine diagnostic services. An amount of $1.4 million has been provided to replace the two gamma cameras nearing the end of their lives at the medical imaging department. We are hoping to be able to purchase this equipment within this second approp prior to Christmas 2007 and have those cameras in place by June 2008. If we had waited for the next budget, those timeframes could not be met. Really, there is an opportunity to get that equipment in and operating.
We will also replace the computer radiography unit for radiation oncology and the SXRT equipment. Again, hopefully, with the funding that will be allowed through the second appropriation, all that equipment will be in place and operational by the time the next budget is being discussed next year. For me, that is a very good outcome, not just for the staff who use that equipment but for the patients who are going to require it as well.
This second appropriation also allows for the formation of a significant ophthalmology department at the Canberra Hospital. We have been successful recently in retaining 1.5 staff specialist ophthalmologists, which we are very pleased about. We believe that through this initiative, which will provide extra support for this unit and allow us to implement a registrar training program, we will be able to significantly reduce patients’ travel to Sydney.
We have not been able to do that in the past, in part because our ophthalmology services have been restricted but also because we have not had staff specialists in this area. With the increase in staff specialists, a registrar training program will be established, which will be fantastic for medical students. Previously we have not been able to offer that sort of service at the Canberra Hospital.
We will establish an outpatient service that will include an after-hours emergency ophthalmology service to cover gaps in the service. I know that the Canberra community got behind that—I think it was Larry the Laser—and raised funds for equipment required for neonates needing a particular type of surgery. We have appointed a specialist who can operate that machine, as delivered. I am aware certainly of one neonate who has been able to benefit from that service already this year and who has not been required to make that trip to Sydney. So this is a fantastic initiative. It grows on the services that we can offer at the Canberra Hospital in addition to what we have done in the past.
The GP work in Canberra campaign again has been welcomed by the division of general practice. I think it has been welcomed by a number of GPs as well. This is really the only thing more the ACT government can do that we have not already done to attract GPs to Canberra. I have written every two months to the
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