Page 2740 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MRS DUNNE: I thank members for their indulgence. As I have said before, this is an important matter.
The ICU does not meet current Australian standards. It is interesting to note—and I made this comment last week—that, when I raised the issue about the ICU not meeting current Australian standards, health officials told me, “Don’t worry, Mrs Dunne, when we built it, it was fine, it met standards, so it still meets standards.” Interestingly, Mrs Jones and I and the arthritis community were told that the hydrotherapy pool does not meet Australian standards anymore and therefore it needs to be closed. There are some contradictions there that could be contemplated.
It took funding from this year’s federal budget and this year’s Morrison government’s commitments at the election to get some action happening to upgrade the ICU. The upgrade to the Canberra Hospital ICU should have been finished by now, but it is not. Because this Labor government cannot manage its health system, and because of a confusion of conflicting statements and advice, the ICU continues to languish.
The Canberra Hospital coronary care unit does not meet Australian standards, nor do the cardiac catheter labs. But do not worry, Madam Assistant Speaker, it is okay. As we have been told, they met the standards at the time that they were built, so they can continue in their current state. As I have noted before, that is not the case for the hydrotherapy pool. We will of course use the cardiac catheter labs and the coronary care unit in their current state for at least five years until SPIRE eventually opens.
Let me dwell briefly on the hydrotherapy pool at the Canberra Hospital. The hydrotherapy pool is another example of the government’s failure to plan for assets that are nearing the end of their useful life, in this case because, even though it was built according to the relevant standards of the day, it does not meet today’s standards and therefore it must close. The hydrotherapy pool was originally planned to close when the Canberra University Hospital was opened last year, and this would have meant that residents living on the south side of Canberra would face hours of travel to and from the University of Canberra Hospital for treatment.
Arthritis ACT raised concerns about the impact of this decision on hundreds of Canberrans who now rely on hydrotherapy, and Minister Fitzharris then claimed that there would be a replacement hydrotherapy pool at Stromlo. She eventually had to correct the record when it became obvious that this claim was not true.
We now have the report from the Nous Group that the case for a new hydrotherapy pool is reasonable. The Nous Group recommended that the government collect data on the territory’s hydrotherapy users and the costs and benefits of a new facility in Canberra’s south. This work should have started many years ago. It should have started when ACT Health’s asset register and maintenance program told the government that the time for the decommissioning of the pool was approaching. Instead, we got confusing advice, uninformed statements, misinformation and obfuscation from this Labor-Greens government.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video