Page 5026 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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MS GALLAGHER: I am trying to explain that it depends entirely on the type of hospital you build. A 400-bed hospital, which is half sub-acute beds, for example, will be entirely different to a hospital that is 400 acute care beds, with a very large intensive care unit. So it depends entirely on the decisions you take around what sort of hospital you want to build. And we have not done the final figures on that, nor have we taken any of the final decisions.
MS BRESNAN: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, in relation to the third hospital, will the government also consider enhanced primary care services or centres, which is a view which has been put forward by the Health Care Consumers Association of the ACT?
MS GALLAGHER: Yes, indeed, that is part of the work. On the north side, work will shortly commence on the Belconnen enhanced community health centre, which is going to be a very large primary care centre established, with consulting rooms, allied health capacity and provision of some services which are currently provided in the hospital. So that will certainly impact, as will the construction of the Gungahlin community health centre. So very much what we are trying to do here is have a hospital system that interacts with and relates to the primary care system. And all of those decisions depend on the final construction of that system. For example, a Phillip enhanced community health centre similar to a Belconnen one will mean that you will not have to build up Canberra Hospital as much. All of this work is currently underway and is feeding into the government’s decision making around how we structure our health system and what is the best way to deliver health services to the community within the framework that we are operating in, which is a two-hospital town, and one hospital that is owned and operated by somebody else.
MRS DUNNE: A supplementary question, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, when do you estimate that you will make a decision about hospitals in north Canberra, given that you have indicated that all decisions about hospitals need to be made in the next five months to allow decisions to be incorporated into the budget?
MS GALLAGHER: That sounds like a pretty reasonable time frame to me.
Environment—building materials
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the minister for planning and development and concerns the use of building materials in ACT buildings. Minister, as you know, building materials such as adhesives, insulation and timber contain different degrees of toxic materials that can be harmful to human health. Building materials also vary
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