Page 3145 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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concurrent management of elective and emergency surgeries. As we are seeing patients present with more complex conditions that need more support, we have a clear need for this new facility to be designed to cater for those members of our community that need coordinated, specialised acute and emergency care designed in a way that will help them to get back home into their community as quickly as possible and as well as possible.
Through this budget the ACT government will also deliver on our commitment to provide better health care for women, youth and children in our community. We are investing almost $70 million to expand the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. This expansion will help us to meet the growing needs of the community and the consistent demand for maternity services as our city and region matures. All of these investments build on the strong record of achievement this government has recorded in the provision of high quality health services for women and children.
I am also very pleased that this funding to expand the centenary hospital will see more birthing beds and staff to care for women during their pregnancy, birth and into the postnatal period. I am delighted that we are also delivering additional paediatric high dependency unit beds, a new paediatric intensive care treatment space and an adolescent gynaecology service, an important complement to the expansion of the hospital.
I am very grateful for the many open and sharing conversations patients, parents and young people in our community have had with me and Minister Rattenbury over the past year on issues regarding mental health and young people. It is with great pride that the government has committed to delivering an adolescent mental health unit at the Centenary hospital.
This budget recognises that north Canberra includes some of the fastest growing parts of our country. It also includes a population that is ageing. Members heard me speak earlier about ensuring that we have the health services we need to provide care for our growing population. So this budget investment includes working to understand better the current and future service and health infrastructure needs in Canberra’s north. We have allocated $3.8 million to undertake a scoping study into the requirements for outpatient and hospital-based care on the north side of Canberra.
We are also delivering on our commitment to ensure that Canberrans have access to better health services where and when they need them. We are building on the very successful walk-in centres in Tuggeranong and Belconnen. Delivering on the government’s election commitment to provide an alternative for people needing access to health care for less serious conditions, walk-in centres are planned for Gungahlin, the inner north and the Weston Creek region.
Through this year’s budget we are investing $14 million over five years both to build and deliver the Gungahlin walk-in centre, develop the design of the Weston Creek region walk-in centre and undertake planning for the inner north walk-in centre, aligned with the work that we have already underway on the new city health centre.
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