Page 936 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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towards a safer culture strategy, which Minister Rattenbury and I were proud to launch late last year. As for hospital infrastructure, we are in the process of upgrading Canberra Hospital and Calvary hospital to ensure that we can deliver better care where and when people need it.
We opened a brand-new public hospital last year, the University of Canberra Hospital, taking pressure off other hospitals and getting people back on their feet after an accident or surgery through cutting-edge rehabilitation. I do not think the Canberra Liberals even noticed. We opened a new walk-in centre last year in Gungahlin, seeing around 350 people each week, with work underway on the Weston Creek walk-in centre.
ACT Health’s building health services program is making considerable progress in planning for the long-term health infrastructure needs of our growing region. I was proud late last year to announce the final location of the SPIRE centre on the Canberra Hospital campus, and this work is well underway. SPIRE was funded in this government’s first term, in the first budget, and extensive planning and feasibility work—including, importantly, territory-wide health services modelling—is underway. It is an important health investment for the ACT, one that will futureproof our city and help our public health system respond to increasing demand as our city grows. Work is underway on continued development of SPIRE, including advanced planning, the commencement of early design, and more intensive engagement with the clinical workforce.
We are also undertaking a north-side hospital services scoping study in partnership with Calvary hospital to explore and plan for health services and infrastructure needs in Canberra’s north. This is all part of the ACT government’s commitment to futureproof our health system as part of a territory-wide approach to health services and infrastructure planning.
I know the opposition like to attack public health care at every opportunity, but the reality is that our health system is of a high quality. In fact, the recent interim report said that the quality of our health care is as good as anywhere in the country. I receive regular emails from people who are so grateful for the high-quality care they receive at one of our health services. Their voices are not heard in this debate. Let me read out a recent letter to the editor of the Canberra Times:
In mid-July 2018 we were innocently involved in a head-on collision …
My stay in the hospital was 94 days and my wife, after some major bowel operations, was released a little earlier.
Now that we are both alive and learning to live with some life-changing medical impositions we wish to let your readers know what outstanding service we received from the rescue team and the hospital staff.
The treatment and care given to us was second to none and world class.
We are fully aware that without the compassionate and professional service we would not be alive.
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