Page 3066 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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MS GALLAGHER: Our car parking requirements, and I will keep saying it for as long as Mr Hanson keeps saying it, are met until 2016. It is an important part of the redevelopment. Every time we do additional redevelopments or additional developments on that site, the car parking requirements have to be taken into account. The car parking requirements are addressed and complete.
There is a lot more work to be done this year. We have got the work that is being done on the women’s and children’s hospital. The acute adult mental health in-patient unit will be finalised. There will be some additional work within the hospital. There will be some of the significant implementation of the e-health agenda, including one of the first steps of having the hospital move to wireless technology, which I know will be received very well by everybody who works in the hospital. The cancer centre will start; I think the DA has been lodged for that. The new Gungahlin health centre—Manteena, as I understand it, are the contractors for that, and that work will start very soon, as will the Tuggeranong health centre and the Belconnen enhanced community health centre.
A directorate that is dealing with an incredible demand in terms of service delivery is also managing the largest infrastructure project on behalf of the ACT government and the ACT community. It is a very significant program. Once these projects are finalised, we will need to move to the complete rebuilding of the tower block at the Canberra Hospital. That will form the start of the very significant second stage of the hospital redevelopment. That will happen hand in hand with the new subacute centre and the refurbishment work that is going to be required at Calvary.
I know that there will be a lot more discussions on health in the Assembly, particularly over the next 16 months. I look forward to them. But I would also like to thank all the staff across the Health Directorate for the excellent work that they do, not only in managing the new capital program but in maintaining the service delivery that they do under very intense circumstances.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (7.59): I welcome the money allocated in this budget to boost cancer services. The $10.9 million which will be provided when this budget passes will result in more doctors, nurses and radiation therapists being available to help those with cancer. There probably is not a household—not one household—in Canberra that remains untouched by this disease. We all know someone—a family member, a friend, a work colleague, a neighbour—who has received the shattering diagnosis. Unfortunately, the number of cases in Australia has doubled in recent years. And as the population of the ACT increases, so will the number of people diagnosed with cancer. ACT Health’s cancer services currently have three linear accelerators which provide radiation treatments. I am proud that, as a result of this budget, a fourth linear accelerator will be added. This will increase access for patients who need this service.
I have talked before in this Assembly about male health and its challenges. As I said then, blokes are often not good at looking after their health. Males make the least use of preventive services and often delay presenting to a doctor until their situation is acute or, in the case of cancer, well advanced. Therefore I am very pleased that this
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