Page 3497 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017
The Assembly met at 10 am.
MADAM SPEAKER (Ms Burch) took the chair, made a formal recognition that the Assembly was meeting on the lands of the traditional owners, and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
ACT Health assets
Ministerial statement
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (10.02): I rise today to speak on the topic of ACT Health asset maintenance in response to a motion passed in this place on 2 August. The ACT Health service is renowned and well regarded by Canberrans for high quality health service delivery and health care. The ACT government is proud of the health care that it provides Canberrans and many others around our region. We know that this is vital for our community, especially to service the changing healthcare needs of our growing city.
Our health services are delivered in a range of facilities around the city. Members would be aware of many of these, more so than ever when we and our loved ones become patients of the health system. Care is delivered throughout these facilities, whether they be our hospitals, community health centres or walk-in clinics. They can become the stuff of strong memories, whether it is an emergency department we attended due to an unexpected injury or illness, the birth suites in which we had our babies, or clinics we attended as outpatients for rehabilitation and recovery.
As the healthcare system has grown and matured, so too have our facilities. Health assets and infrastructure are obviously a key feature of health service delivery. I am glad of the opportunity to reassure members and the community of the proactive approach ACT Health is taking to managing and maintaining these essential assets.
Canberra has, like cities across Australia, a wide range of health facilities. Those owned and operated by ACT Health were built over many years. It has long been the case that upgrades to and maintenance of these facilities are proactively managed by ACT Health, in addition to overseeing the construction of new facilities.
It is a feature of good government to undertake this proactive work. Most recently ACT Health commissioned a significant piece of work to inform this ongoing effort. As members would be aware, that report was undertaken by AECOM. It is titled ACTÂ Health infrastructure asset condition report and minor works priorities, the AECOM report.
Members should also be aware that the AECOM report informed a significant budget initiative in the 2016-17 budget, the $95.3 million upgrade and maintain ACT Health assets, or UMAHA, initiative. Both of these actions are an excellent example of the
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