Page 3309 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
ceremony for Canberra’s cutest baby in a beanie competition. The competition was organised by Leonie Keogh of Snowgum Studio to raise funds for the neonatal intensive care foundation. This year the judging was tough, with 139 babies entering the competition. The entry fee was $30 and parents sought sponsors for their children. Two parents raised $800 each. A total of $9,900 was raised for the foundation by this event.
The neonatal intensive care foundation provides valuable equipment for the neonatal intensive care unit that is useful for the continuing improvement of the service but that is not available through normal government channels. Of course, the government remains the primary source of funding for the NICU, but community involvement through fundraising highlights the fact that Canberra is a community and allows people to show they care. Fundraising is an effective way of bringing a community together, especially when it has an entertaining result such as this.
I would like to thank the work of Mr Peter Cursley, chair of the neonatal intensive care foundation, and his board. The foundation also does great work in supporting research and education activities so that the unit can contribute to our knowledge of the problems of the newborn. I also acknowledge Associate Professor Zsuzsoka Kecskes, clinical director of the neonatal intensive care unit, and her staff. I understand the unit admits approximately 650 babies a year and that more than 150 of these babies need assisted ventilation using sophisticated equipment not available elsewhere.
Staff at the unit recognise the essential role of parents as part of the care team. Parents are not considered as visitors and are welcome 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The unit has also been the first neonatal intensive care unit in Australia to install a webcam so that parents can see their babies when they are unable to be at the hospital with them. This was launched in 2010, in January.
You may be aware that the ACT government has funded a new women’s and children’s hospital. The new hospital is being built at the north end of the Canberra Hospital campus around the existing maternity building, which will be renovated and incorporated in the finished facility. It will be a state-of-the-art, three-storey facility on the Canberra Hospital campus. Paediatrics, maternity services, the NICU, gynaecology and foetal medicine and specialised outpatient services will be co-located in one place. Construction began in July 2010 and stage 1 of the construction, involving an expansive extension, is being built beside the existing maternity building. It is expected to be operational in the first half of 2012.
Stage 2 will involve a major refurbishment of the existing maternity building and will be completed in the following year. The women’s and children’s hospital will provide 146 beds. It will also provide an increased number of ambulatory care—that is, outpatients—consulting rooms, clinical office space, education and training facilities and family accommodation. There will be a playground and landscaped spaces. The women’s and children’s hospital at Canberra Hospital will set the benchmark for women’s, paediatric and newborn care within Australia. I congratulate the health minister on this additional funding.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video