Page 248 - Week 01 - Thursday, 12 February 2015
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The benefit from the UC hospital will be felt well beyond its 140 inpatient beds and 75 day places. Services such as rehabilitation, adult mental health and aged care will help everyone in the community, as well as teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals. As Minister Corbell outlined, the University of Canberra hospital forms a central component of our coordinated health infrastructure program. The program rollout will ensure Canberrans get the right care at the right time and at a place that is convenient to them, in a supporting and welcoming environment.
Successive intergenerational reports released by the federal government have highlighted the effect our nation’s ageing population will have on all aspects of our healthcare system. I expect the impending and overdue 2015 report––whenever it is released by the federal Treasurer––will reconfirm these worrying trends. That is why we also need to properly cater for this city’s growing healthcare needs by renewing our existing health infrastructure.
Canberra Hospital will need to serve the community for generations, and that requires us to be smart about developing the facility. We need to think beyond just the health challenges we will face in this coming decade but in fact well into the future—indeed, over the next 40 to 50 years. One immediate step we are taking is to handle a significant increase in acute and trauma presentations. As this place is well aware, the Canberra Hospital is the region’s major trauma centre and I pay tribute to the dedicated men and women who work in the hospital who are saving lives there every day. The committed $23 million expansion to the emergency department will certainly make their working lives easier and help them to help those who are presenting at the hospital.
Mr Corbell also outlined progress with the secure mental health unit model of care. Across Australia and around the world people with complex mental health needs often find themselves trapped in the criminal justice system, and ultimately in prison, simply because there is nowhere else for them to go. So the government’s construction of a 25-bed facility at Symonston will be genuinely world leading, a safe, clinical and therapeutic environment for people with a mental illness who are difficult to treat and who are at serious risk to others. The facility will give them the intensive support that they need to keep the community safe outside a penal environment. That is the way we will truly give each individual the best possible chance of recovery.
Of course, one of the most effective ways we can improve the health of Canberrans is through investing in prevention. I know this is an area of passion for Minister Corbell, for the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Mr Rattenbury, and indeed for me. The federal government, unfortunately, made its disdain for prevention of primary healthcare programs very clear through its cuts to a range of important programs and campaigns across the country.
In contrast, here in the territory the ACT government has a strong and ongoing commitment to preventive health programs—for example, innovative ways to reduce tobacco use and provide smoke-free environments for workers and children through our future directions for tobacco control program. Tobacco use continues to take too many lives of our loved ones. For something so important you would like to think
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