Page 2083 - Week 06 - Thursday, 26 June 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
There will be capacity for 45 maternity and gynaecology overnight beds and up to 50 paediatric beds, 12 NICU cots, 18 special neonatal care cots and a women’s and children’s ambulatory-care centre with approximately 50 ambulatory treatment areas, including day-stay beds. Fast tracking of feasibility, forward design, and construction of the women’s and children’s hospital is a major component of the early stages of this project. The women’s and children’s hospital is also a major critical step in unlocking the TCH campus for the redevelopment necessary to take our health services forward into the future. It is essential to free up space in the existing acute ward areas of the main tower block.
A 40-bed adult mental health acute inpatient unit will be built at the Canberra Hospital. This will address the shortcomings in the existing infrastructure for adult inpatient mental health treatment. Patients will be treated in a facility purpose-built to provide for individual needs and to facilitate rehabilitation. A secure adult mental health inpatient unit will provide a new service accommodating ACT residents whose mental health conditions require short to medium-term treatment and placement in a secure facility. The mental health assessment unit provides for construction of an assessment unit adjacent to the emergency department at Canberra Hospital. It will be a short-stay observation unit aimed at providing a more appropriate mental health assessment and treatment environment at the point of presentation as an alternative environment to stabilise and discharge clients without the need for admission to an inpatient facility where appropriate.
Funding for a mental health young persons unit will enable the design of an inpatient mental health facility for young people. It will comprise 20 beds and the secure subdivision of the unit in order to meet the needs and safety of younger clients from 13 to 17 and those from 18 to 25. The unit will incorporate the integration of clinical and associated services including inpatient, allied health, and community-based services in order to improve transition from inpatient to the community.
A new walk-in health centre planned for Gungahlin will comprise a network of community health centres to provide a comprehensive range of community-based child and family services, mental health and continuing and post-acute care services. These are currently located in our town centres, and our figures are now telling us that growth in north Canberra requires that a new centre be established at Gungahlin as part of our community network. A new feature of our community health centres will be walk-in centres. Walk-in centres will offer consumers fast, efficient access to health advice, information and treatment of minor ailments and illnesses. The centres will be staffed by a primary healthcare team consisting of nursing staff and allied health professionals and will provide free health care to patients on a walk-in, no-appointment basis.
The walk-in centres will work with hospital emergency departments, general practitioners and extended-hours services such as CAMHS to provide a new service model. It will complement existing services yet fill a recognised gap in access to basic acute primary care services in Canberra. Building a new community health centre in Gungahlin town centre that currently only has limited health services reflects the need to service that major growth centre of Canberra. A capacity to provide a walk-in centre is planned.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .