Page 250 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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community expectation. One of my very clear agendas in this space is that we need to do that.
The figures that Mrs Dunne has cited, particularly the ones of waiting times in the emergency department, are familiar to me; I provided them to her in response to a question on notice. We are working on a number of options at the moment; as Mrs Dunne well knows, under the rules of question time I am not allowed to announce government policy, but I will look forward to sharing those details with the Assembly at the right time.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, in relation to declining wait times, the head of the emergency medicine council, Dr Judkins, said that this was the result of years of neglect. What have you done to turn around the years of neglect?
MR RATTENBURY: We have done a number of things. I have actually met with Dr Judkins and had a detailed discussion about the view of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, ACEM, on some of the ideas about how we can address this. They have put forward some very constructive suggestions, and I welcome that.
In response to their invitation, we sent a number of senior ACT officials to the summit that they convened in Victoria on how to address these issues, and those ideas are being worked on. Personally, I have in a recent overseas trip looked at what some other jurisdictions are doing to deal with these issues.
One of my views is that the emergency department is not always the best place for a person with a mental health crisis. I actually think that there are better ways that we can deal with people. That is some of the work that we are investigating at the moment. We are also undertaking renewed modelling on capacity issues and I expect that work to come back in due course.
MRS JONES: Minister, why is the new adult community mental health service model of care introduced in June 2018 and referred to in the same Canberra Times story apparently not working?
MR RATTENBURY: I refute completely the basis of Mrs Jones’s assertion. The new model of care has been rolled out after various trial periods. It is a transition; you have to do it carefully. The feedback I have had so far is very positive: staff feel like they have more time to spend with clients and the waiting lists have reduced. Overall so far I have had only positive feedback on that.
Of course, it is only six to seven months old. There will undoubtedly be some tweaking and adjustment, but our staff are very committed to this model of care. They see it as a positive development for both their workload and stress levels and also the outcomes for their patients. I feel very optimistic that this model of care will make a valuable difference to the mental health consumers of Canberra.
ACT Fire & Rescue—equipment
MRS JONES: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Minister, I refer to a Canberra Times article of 27 January this year which stated that
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