Page 4468 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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This is a very important issue for the people of Belconnen, the people that I represent, because the Calvary hospital is the principal provider of hospital heath services in my electorate and it is an important issue for people in my electorate. It is a privilege and a duty as an elected representative to represent the views of the people in my electorate, and they have particular concerns about the role of Calvary hospital, which is integral to the Belconnen community.
Calvary hospital’s motto is “hospitality, healing, stewardship and respect”. I think that Calvary’s record against this motto is a proud one. The level of public and media interest in the purchase of Calvary by the ACT government is in itself a testimony to its record and the proud position that Calvary holds in the ACT community.
There has been a large amount of debate on this issue, and a fair amount of passage of things in, say, the Canberra Times and elsewhere, discussions around these issues, and they have ranged over a whole range of areas. There are issues in relation to palliative care. I recently had some very close experience with Clare Holland House. While I was a regular visitor there during the final days of a member of my family I was approached on a number of occasions by volunteers and staff who were concerned about what might happen to Clare Holland House.
I think I could say quite confidently that, irrespective of who owns Clare Holland House, the high quality service that is provided by Clare Holland House will continue. But there is an underlying concern in the palliative care community about the future of Clare Holland House which has not been resolved satisfactorily. It has not been explained satisfactorily to the staff and the volunteers who work at Clare Holland House, and that is something that this government needs to address.
I would like to turn to just a few of the letters to the editor of the Canberra Times. I have deliberately chosen people from my own electorate who have written on this matter. On 22 April this year Mr Craig from Holt wrote:
Cashed-up thanks to the global financial crisis handouts from the Feds, but promising us several years of deficits, the ACT Government wants to buy Calvary Hospital.
This acquisition would offer no financial benefits or improved healthcare to the ACT’s residents, just uniformity of policy in our public hospitals. Deficits don’t matter but correct ideology, so beloved of governments, does. There will be no expiation, it seems, for Calvary’s sin of being different.
Another constituent of mine, who lives in McKellar, wrote more recently on 2 October about the great sell-off:
ACT Treasurer Katy Gallagher says (“Grim diagnosis over hospital sale”, October 1, p1) that buying Calvary Hospital “would be better for the ACT balance sheet because the Government would be investing in its own assets rather than paying grants to a third party”. Gee whiz, why didn’t someone think of that before our various governments around Australia sold our other assets.
There is a huge level of concern in my community, the community that I represent, Mr Coe represents and Ms Porter represents, about what is going to happen to our
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