Page 2561 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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I also have ongoing concerns about both the model of care and the government’s ability to run the acute-end facilities that they are already operating. I wonder if the model of care is verging on the utopian, and I will be watching carefully to see how ongoing staffing and other concerns are managed at the facilities we already have, such as the current mental health facility in Woden.
To conclude, we can do more in prevention. Changes are underway, but I have concerns about our state and territory level services. The budget predominantly promises a new facility for the acute end, which I hope fulfils the now quite high expectations on it after a wait of more than a decade for its construction.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (11.13): I am proud of this government’s budget, prudently investing in the future of Canberra. I am especially proud of investment in health infrastructure and services in Belconnen. These investments serve the health needs of the fastest growing areas of Canberra with the expansion of Belconnen in the west, infill in Belconnen town centre, the new suburb of Lawson and the rapidly expanding population of Gungahlin. This budget is built on an in-depth understanding of our city, unlike Treasurer Hockey’s budget, which is built on a superficial misunderstanding of Canberra. This is not the time for a hairshirt austerity budget from the ACT government. Everybody knows that, including the ACT business community.
Our budget includes record funding for health whilst covering the commonwealth’s cuts to our health budget worth around $248 million. This increase funds across Canberra 31 new hospital beds, 500 extra elective surgeries per year, more staff and services at the Belconnen and Tuggeranong community health services and extra health services for women and children. The major infrastructure projects in Belconnen include the University of Canberra public hospital and the Calvary hospital 700-space car park and electrical works costing $19 million.
These infrastructure projects will also benefit the private sector and create jobs when we need them most. At Calvary hospital, besides the new car park, they will have an additional 15 acute beds in 2014-15, an additional intensive care unit bed, $1.5 million for birthing services, $1.9 million to extend lymphoedema services and $1.3 million to expand Calvary’s ophthalmology services.
The new Belconnen Community Health Centre completed earlier in the year is funded by the government in this budget for the new Belconnen nurse-led walk-in centre—not closed, as Mr Hanson alleged earlier, but opened in Belconnen and in Tuggeranong. The centre gets an additional eight FTE staff in 2014-15 enabling other services to be expanded at a cost of $9.4 million.
The Belconnen nurse-led walk-in centre opened six weeks ago and is proving very popular, as we heard yesterday. Despite the new locations, already the Belconnen and Tuggeranong centres are getting more clients than the Canberra Hospital service averaged, justifying the decision to relocate the services to both Belconnen and Tuggeranong.
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