Page 2143 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
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Mrs Dunne’s motion speaks about the maintenance of existing health infrastructure, and I am very pleased to speak about how the government is investing comprehensively in what is a very complex and extensive asset portfolio across the territory. Canberra Health Services is responsible for maintaining a property portfolio comprising over 60 buildings delivering health care in the ACT. It is not unique to this or any health service, or indeed many other organisations in the ACT, that there are a range of ages in this asset portfolio, with some of them ageing, and each year the ACT government invests at a base level approximately $12 million in these buildings, their ongoing infrastructure and equipment needs.
The infrastructure portfolio at Canberra Health Services is managed through a comprehensive strategic asset management plan. CHS is also delivering approximately $150 million of active projects at the Canberra Hospital campus, including projects such as the new cancer ward, due for completion in May next year; the over $90 million UMAHA program which has been spoken about previously in this place, including this week; and the nearly $25 million critical health assets program.
Comprehensive asset management plans are being developed for critical health service buildings. These plans provide a structure for Canberra Health Services to ensure that building assets are maintained and upgraded in compliance with applicable building codes and in a manner that addresses critical risks, ensures safety and minimises disruption to services. These programs ensure the effective monitoring, maintenance and management of Canberra’s valuable health infrastructure assets and ensure that current and future infrastructure decisions are appropriately informed and prioritised without compromising clinical care.
All maintenance and upgrades are aligned to the territory-wide service planning work being undertaken by the ACT Health Directorate to ensure a coordinated approach to infrastructure planning and maintenance. All the components I have discussed here today comprise the health facilities that our patients, staff and the community interact with every day.
There is more we can do to continue investing in them, and that is exactly what the government is doing. I have always taken an approach of openness when it comes to information sharing and transparency and I am left wondering what additional transparency the opposition is referring to. We have estimates hearings; annual report hearings; opposition briefings; parliamentary proceedings; question time; a variety of constituent and MLA correspondence; over 250 questions on notice in the last financial year, often with significant parts health and wellbeing related; Auditor-General’s reports; FOI responses; and committee inquiries.
I urge the opposition to have more faith in our staff who come to work each day not only in delivering healthcare services but maintaining and upgrading our extensive asset portfolio across the territory. Governments have a responsibility to commission work, make responsible decisions and deliver for the Canberra community. We commission reports and we get expert advice so that we can make decisions in the best interests of the community, not just to provide the opposition with another
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