Page 1532 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 April 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MADAM SPEAKER: Chief Minister, the standing orders require you to be directly relevant. It is a straightforward question.
MS GALLAGHER: It is a straightforward question, Madam Speaker. As I was saying before Mr Hanson jumped to his feet, both of those questions will be answered at the conclusion of the next stage.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Has the minister had the opportunity to view any other recently opened subacute hospitals in other jurisdictions?
MS GALLAGHER: Yes, I have. I thank Ms Berry for the question. Last Thursday, I visited two subacute hospitals in Victoria, and I do thank the Victorian government for giving me access to those sites. One of them is in Wantirna. The other is known as the Kingston Centre. This gave me the opportunity to see how modern subacute hospitals are designed, what facilities are included in those and the model of care in place.
It was a very interesting visit to both of those facilities. They were both 64-bed facilities. They took between, I think, three and four years for the projects. In fact, the Kingston Centre took 10 years, I think, from the original design to be completed because it required budget funding. They were 64-bed facilities that cost in the order of $40 million.
We are looking at what happened in other jurisdictions in terms of what is an appropriate budget for this project. And we are using learnings from other jurisdictions to feed into the work that the cabinet will consider ultimately when we approve a budget for this type of facility.
The visits were very instructive. It is great to see how the subacute hospital systems are working in larger jurisdictions where they have been more established and I think there is great opportunity for us to partner with the university and deliver a very high standard of care for patients who are receiving subacute services but also make sure that we support the growth of the University of Canberra as the premier regional health university for this part of south-east Australia.
Youth—services
MR COE: My question is to the Minister for Disability, Children and Young People. Minister, changes have been made to the delivery of the youth support program, resulting in the closure of some drop-in youth centres in the ACT. Minister, has a review been undertaken to measure the impacts on other youth services of these closures? If not, why not?
MS BURCH: I thank Mr Coe for his question. I think you are referring to the change in the children, youth and family support program that did see some significant changes in the delivery of services for children, young people and families. Some of
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video