Page 1583 - Week 05 - Thursday, 15 May 2014
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Indeed, a couple I met from Cook had been walking around the National Gallery on Tuesday morning when the woman felt unwell. She went home with her husband and the next day was sitting up in bed in the stroke unit being really well cared for. They could not speak more highly of the staff and the care they had received, how quick that care was and how lucky we are as a community that these services are available and operational in our city.
I wish them all the best. I am sure that they are either out of the hospital now or well on the road to recovery. It is a real credit to the staff at Calvary hospital that those patients spoke highly about the clinical and nursing care that they received.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Minister, will these new beds take pressure off already busy areas of the public hospital system, and how will they ensure best treatment outcomes for patients?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. There are some other beds that will come on line in the next few months. These beds will be at Canberra Hospital. But the extra beds that were provided at Calvary hospital will significantly improve the capacity, and have done so already, for patients and patient flow. But it is not just about meeting targets; it is actually about the care that you provide. Even though these units are not single rooms—the stroke unit is a four-bed room, the RAPU is a four-bed room, and the medical assessment and planning unit is a two-bed room—they are still able to have a high level of patient amenity, with very good nursing-staff ratios to support those individuals in their care and treatment.
But we will continue to look at where we need to open beds, particularly what types of beds we need, to make sure we meet the needs of the community. I will no doubt update the Assembly in the future with the new beds that will open at the Canberra Hospital to complement these 24 beds at Calvary.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, what plans are there for the opening of new beds in future?
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Dr Bourke—and so soon to update the Assembly. When we look at hospital beds, there were 670 hospital beds available in 2001. We are now operating up to 1,030 funded beds in 2013. In the last budget there were 44 beds funded. Twenty-eight of those have come on line. The remaining 16 beds are for Canberra Hospital and they will open in August this year at the completion of the capital upgrades which have been linked to the area where the paediatric ward was before they moved to the new women’s and children’s hospital.
The budget allocated $12 million in 2013-14 to open 44 inpatient beds. So we will have 16 general inpatient beds, five new beds within the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, including one NICU cot, one paediatric bed and one foetal medical day space. Funding is also allocated to provide capacity to expand the emergency medicine unit.
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