Page 3055 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 23 September 2014
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the expansion of services. They were about reducing hospital services, and that is what we came in for.
It was the biggest issue at the time. We came in and we started fixing it. It has taken years, and it will take years. It is ongoing work that is required to fully equip a health system. I imagine it is work that is never finished. I cannot see an end date because of the change that is required in terms of the use of new technologies that are coming in and changing the way services are delivered. There are changes as soon as the different medicines and treatments that are available are listed on the PBS. A whole new treatment regime requires a different response.
The health system will continue to undergo massive change over the next few years. Part of our challenge is how we continue to deliver services in a frantic 24-hour, seven days a week service system that never closes, ever. There is no down time. There is no time that you can do particular building works or prioritise different infrastructure. We are building, essentially, a brand new hospital on the site of the busiest hospital in the region. And do not estimate the challenges that that presents.
At the same time we are trying to reconfigure the community health system so that anything that can be provided in the community is being provided in the community. We are opening up new services to deal with some of those issues, like low bulk-billing rates and affordability and access to health care. That is all being dealt with under the plan that I have rolled out as health minister.
We see the incredible popularity of the nurse-led walk-in centres that have opened in the community. We know that affordability and access is an issue and we have responded. We have responded in a way that some may argue is not in our jurisdiction in terms of the delivery of primary health care, but we have responded because we have seen the community’s need and we have wanted to address it and ensure that everyone has access to high quality, free health care. And that is being delivered through programs like the nurse-led walk-in centre.
The focus is always on the Canberra Hospital, as opposed to the broader hospital system in Canberra, of which there are four. There is also the work that goes on in population health, in ensuring that the community is kept safe from really significant outbreaks of illness, whether it be food poisoning, influenza or gastroenteritis, as well as the work that is done on our pools to make sure the public pools are clean and safe for swimming. You name it and the health system is there, able to respond and responding 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is because of the effort that we have put into the health system and it is because of the thousands of dedicated staff that turn up to work and work in the hardest circumstances of all. Then they hear the feedback from political leaders that tell them they are delivering the worst outcomes and the worst care in the country.
And that is not right. Go to the MyHospitals website and have a look. It is simply incorrect to say that people wait in Canberra hospitals longer than anywhere else in the country. It is not true, and you should stop repeating that false allegation in this place. When you look at peer-based hospitals, Canberra Hospital is right on peer average. Go and have a look at similar types of hospitals in other jurisdictions in
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