Page 2563 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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We have also, on the north side of Canberra, the ophthalmology services, again an area of huge growth. Just a few years ago we did not run an ophthalmology service at the hospital and people needed to go interstate for treatment. We now have a high-level service in high demand that needs to be expanded. That expansion is available at the Calvary Public Hospital and will be moving out of the Canberra Hospital.
The Canberra Region Cancer Centre which opened last week will see more staff, nurses, medical and support staff, to operate the new services—a great addition to the health system with the opening of that facility. There will be also extra beds opened in neonatal intensive care, paediatric inpatient, paediatric day surgery, delivery suite and birthing centre and the maternity assessment unit which will help us to again deal with increasing demand for services.
Mrs Jones talked about mental health. There are investments in increasing staffing for child and adolescent mental health services, with an emphasis on perinatal and infant consultation services and also an expansion of the eating disorder program, which is something that has been discussed in this place over the years.
There will also be funding to provide a psychosocial step-up, step-down outreach service. We are also putting in some extra money for community nursing, additional nursing and support staff, to boost the demand there. Again, like I was saying yesterday, we know how popular those services are and how much cheaper they are if we can deliver health services in the home rather than in a health facility like a hospital.
There is more money for elective surgery, which will see an extra 500 procedures per annum, to improve elective surgery waiting times, which are improving year on year. We have got two additional emergency department physicians, one at Calvary Public Hospital and one at Canberra, to help reduce the ED waiting times and meet growing demand there. Again, they will be very well received in both of those units.
We have also delivered on our election commitment around endoscopy services, 300 additional procedures per annum to reduce current waiting time. There will be extra intensive care unit beds, two at Canberra Hospital and one at Calvary Public Hospital—very expensive but essential to the high-level care that we provide here in the territory.
Another issue which has been before the Assembly and which is addressed in this budget is the expansion of the lymphoedema service, with three health professionals to expand the provision of those services. Again, that will be warmly received. There are more inpatient beds coming, 31 additional beds which will be the single biggest item in this budget, to improve conditions and relieve pressure in the emergency department. There will be inpatient beds but there will also be six bed equivalents provided through the expansion of hospital in the home.
As we are growing other areas of health, it also places demand on the other support services. So there will be funding going in to expand outpatient and imaging services and this, I guess, continues to build the level of service we can provide. If we are
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