Page 1326 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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This motion comes from a party that has little concern for our community. How could it, when it ripped out 114 beds from our hospital system when it was in power? It had so little regard then for our ageing population and growing demand for health services. This motion comes from a group of people who left our mental health services almost at the bottom of the national funding league table.
Over the last 7½ years, we have provided a clear strategy to reverse that situation. We have spent funds on infrastructure in order to grow our own medical workforce. Not only have we replaced the 114 beds that were ripped out of our public hospitals by those opposite, but we have added more. By the end of 2008-09, we will have added more than 200 beds to our hospitals since we first came to government. We have added almost $50 million to increase access to elective surgery, providing record levels of access to surgery over the last five years. In addition, we have established the sub and non-acute service at Calvary Hospital and the Medical Assessment and Planning Unit at Canberra Hospital.
This government is providing more services to the community and also new ways of providing care to better meet patient needs. We have increased the capacity of our cancer services by funding additional doctors, nurses and beds as well as commissioning a third linear accelerator. We have committed $300 million to begin the total renewal and redevelopment of our healthcare infrastructure to enable the delivery of quality healthcare services to the ACT through to 2022 and beyond.
Some of the items funded out of the $300 million over the next four years include a women and children’s hospital; a mental health acute in-patient unit, at $23 million; a new community health centre at Gungahlin; a secure adult mental health in-patient unit; a 16-bed ICU, high dependency unit and coronary care unit facility at Calvary Hospital; redevelopment of community health centres; and an additional 24 beds at the Canberra Hospital. The list is exhaustive. What I am trying to show those opposite is that we on this side of the chamber understand what our responsibilities are. We know what the ACT government responsibilities are and what the commonwealth responsibilities are.
What is the opposition’s strategy to increase GP numbers? I ask them to show us their grand plan. It is not starting a training school, is it? I think we have accomplished that. Is it about supporting junior doctors to undertake intern placements in local GP clinics? That is something this government has done. This government focuses on marketing and recruiting GPs to the ACT, and on building partnerships with GPs in their organisations across the ACT. The opposition seems to want to take funding away from ACT responsibilities and what the ACT can do, and to spend it on commonwealth responsibilities.
Notwithstanding that, we do not shirk our responsibilities. We are working on a comprehensive range of programs and activities to address the GP shortage. We are doing all of this with the understanding and acknowledgement that GPs in Australia work in private practice, and that their education, training and distribution across Australia, including in the ACT, is a federal government responsibility.
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