Page 2682 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I can check with the Clerk. It is 5AA.
Mrs Jones: Okay.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, would you continue?
MR HANSON: Start the clock again. Anyway, the case has been made comprehensively by Ms Gallagher and many others that work needed to be done to rebuild the hospital. This was a plan that was then designed in stages. There were various stages that were presented to us.
Stage 1, which costed at about $375 million, involved an expansion of the emergency department, the ICU, the medical assessment planning unit, the emergency medical unit, ambulatory spaces, treatment spaces, a new medical imaging unit, sterilisation unit, up to 20 operating theatres and so on. People who work in the Canberra Hospital will tell you that the existing facilities that they are working in to perform all those tasks are temporary, are inadequate and are not up to speed.
The plan—this was the government’s plan—was to rebuild building 3 and move those facilities in so they are world class with potential for growth to meet the demand projections that we have. That is the plan that was proposed. I think it was a good plan. It was a well thought through plan. It is a plan that we will commit to.
What this allows is a massive expansion not just in beds, and you will note that these are critical care beds. It is also what else it provides in terms of operating theatres, medical imaging, the sterilisation unit and so on. It then allows for the existing facilities, where those elements are in compromised positions not suited to critical care, not suited to the treatment that they are delivering there, to be adaptively reused to provide up to 150 more beds if required.
It is space for about 150 beds, depending on how you treat it, and 100 more ambulatory treatment spaces. Not only do you get the massive increase in capacity and capability of the new building, depending on demand and depending on need, the space that is then vacated can also be reused for well over 150 hospital beds. In total we are talking about a significant increase in capacity and capability across the board.
This has been received well. As I said, we were at the hospital today speaking to staff. They were delighted with what has been proposed. We have been speaking to groups who are representative bodies. As I said, the nursing federation has put out a statement supporting what the Canberra Liberals are proposing, which is great. We have also had the support of the AMA. I can quote the AMA. I will leave one word out because it might be unparliamentary, Madam Deputy Speaker.
“It’s a … fantastic initiative, it is just really a great piece of policy and we would really like to support this,” ACT president Professor Stephen Robson said.
He went further in this report to state:
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