Page 2603 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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Mr Seselja interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: I can see how interested the Leader of the Opposition is in the health system. In fact, in this year alone we have seen an increase of about 4½ per cent and over the past five years inpatient activity levels have risen by 18 per cent. In some areas of health care the growth has exceeded those rates that I just spoke about. Presentations to the emergency department have been growing by over five per cent per annum in recent years and demand for outpatient services has also seen substantial growth, with about a seven per cent increase, when compared to the same year.
I think it is worth discussing the broader health system. I am always happy to take questions on the emergency department and the elective surgery program, but I would also like to outline that there are a number of other programs that operate in the health system, both in the acute system and in the community-based setting. There has been substantial change to this over the term of this government.
In fact, we have started a new eye service, an ophthalmology service, and a head and neck trauma service. Both of these services have reduced the number of ACT residents having to travel interstate. We have opened a sleep studies laboratory. We have opened a new 16-bed medical assessment and planning unit. We have opened the mental health assessment unit. We have opened Australia’s first public nurse-led walk-in centre. We have opened a new PET scanner. For the first time in the ACT, people in the ACT do not have to travel to Sydney if they need a PET scanner.
We have opened two new step up, step down facilities in mental health. We have opened the one-stop shop for rehabilitation and disability support services at Village Creek. A nursing and midwifery research centre has opened. A business hours GP service has opened. A neonatal emergency transfer service has opened to transport critically ill newborns to Canberra Hospital. We have provided more support than ever before in relation to GP assistance. We have expanded midwifery-led models of care. We have implemented a world award winning system in the NICUCAM area where parents of new babies can log on and see their babies in the NICU over webstreaming.
We have implemented digital mammography. We have had mental health community policing initiatives start with ACT Policing. We have jointly established the medical school. There is a new range of e-health initiatives which have been flowing out across the hospital. We have opened two new linear accelerator machines which are designed to provide radiation therapy treatment for people with cancer. A second cardiac catheter lab has been opened. There are additional operating theatres at both the public hospitals, more intensive care beds, more emergency department treatment spaces, record levels of elective surgery and expanded hospital in the home services. At the same time we have been implementing progressive, positive health legislation like new policies on smoking in cars with children, new food safety laws and, of course, mapping our work with plans for suicide, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, breastfeeding, chronic disease, renal services and diabetes. The list goes on and on.
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