Page 1639 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
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Our third nurse walk-in centre is well on track and is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, and I very much look forward to that opening to serve the Gungahlin community. It will add to existing walk-in centres already in operation in Belconnen and Tuggeranong. The walk-in centres complement existing health services by providing free, one-off treatment and health advice for people with minor injuries and illnesses. The Belconnen and Tuggeranong services have been well received in our community, with more than 36,000 presentations for assistance with minor injury or illness each year.
As I have already mentioned, the government’s long-term plans to manage maternity demand in the ACT include a $70 million expansion of the Centenary hospital which was funded in last year’s budget. Major construction works at Canberra’s dedicated rehabilitation hospital are now complete. Staff have been recruited and I very much look forward to that new hospital opening in the next few months. UCH has been specially designed to support recovery and rehabilitation and includes a hydrotherapy pool, rehabilitation courtyards, gymnasiums and kitchens. Operational commissioning is underway to prepare the hospital and its staff to deliver clinical and support services from July this year.
Last year’s budget included $236 million over four years for planning, design and the start of construction for SPIRE, a major hospital investment which will take some time to plan. I look forward to providing further advice to the Assembly and the community on this in the upcoming budget. Since last year the territory-wide health services framework has also been developed. It is important to me, underscored by conversations particularly recently with many clinicians, that this service planning must inform infrastructure planning to ensure that the new facility is purpose built and designed to support our clinicians and our community.
The construction of SPIRE will start in 2020 and, from detailed planning over the last year, is unlikely to be completed in 2022-23 as originally considered but in the following financial year. Current tender processes and further service planning will give us greater certainty over the next 12 months about time frames for completion of the various stages.
As we know, health systems across the country are dealing with unprecedented challenges that come from the demand for health services expanding and becoming more complex. There is always going to be more we can do to improve timeliness and access to care in our hospitals. As such, the important services we provide in our EDs and in the delivery of elective surgery will always be areas of focus for the government.
Further to my earlier points about the increased demand for emergency treatment, when talking about the ED, context is important. We are one of the country’s busiest emergency departments, a major tertiary centre for the ACT and surrounding New South Wales regions treating many urgent and complex cases particularly at Canberra Hospital. To improve timeliness ACT Health is focusing particularly on patient flows from the ED into the hospital. ACT Health is currently looking at processes in relation to the discharging of patients in the ED, patients being admitted to a ward in the hospital and discharge from the inpatient setting.
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