Page 2031 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017
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more community-based walk-in centres will be rolled out across the city. This is the start of the Labor government’s 10-year plan to keep Canberrans healthy and active.
Our hospital precinct will expand to include new, world-class facilities to provide better services for Canberrans and to prepare for our growing population. We will invest $236 million over the next four years to plan, design and start building the SPIRE centre in Garran. SPIRE will represent a new era in surgical procedures, interventional radiology and emergency care in the ACT. Our city’s kids and young adults must also have access to the best health care which meets their needs. That is why the Labor government is investing $70 million in expanding the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. The hospital will receive a new child and adolescent mental health unit, an adolescent gynaecology service, a new paediatric unit and paediatric intensive care beds as well as 40 more maternity beds to care for expectant mothers.
The 2017 budget continues the government’s investment in the University of Canberra public hospital in my electorate—and your electorate, Madam Deputy Speaker—of Ginninderra. The government will provide over $16 million to this important health infrastructure project to fund the operational commissioning of the building. The government will begin training clinical and non-clinical support staff in implementing planned models of care, clinical policies and procedures, getting the facility ready for patients in mid-2018.
UCPH is a critical part of the record investment the government has made in our health system over the past few years. The new hospital will help strengthen the ACT’s health system by providing dedicated rehabilitation services for both physical and mental health. It will also help alleviate the pressure on our current health system and free up more resources at other hospitals in the territory. Our hospitals will improve and expand to provide world-class health care to our growing population. We can rest easy, knowing that if we or our loved ones must go to hospital we will have access to the best care and facilities. For most of us, though, visits to the hospital are thankfully few and far between. However, we probably get struck down by a lurgy or suffer minor injuries throughout the year. I know I am not alone in being one of those people in the last few weeks.
That is why the ACT government is also investing in community-based health facilities to support Canberrans to remain healthy and active. Fourteen million dollars will be spent over five years on two new nurse-led walk-in centres in Gungahlin and the Weston Creek region and on planning and scoping work for a community health centre in the inner north. These centres provide accessible health care for minor injuries or illness, taking the pressure off our GPs and hospital systems.
Belconnen already has a nurse-led walk-in centre, which I visited when I came down sick with strep throat last week. I can personally attest to how accessible, professional and helpful the nurses at the centre are. In half an hour I was seen, examined, diagnosed and provided with medication, all without an appointment. The further rollout of these centres across the city will make a significant difference to health care in the community.
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