Page 2751 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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Islander community, with the priorities aimed at driving health, wellbeing and quality of life outcomes.
As we work to build a more inclusive health system, $87,000 in funding will also be used to undertake a 12-month scoping study to consider how we can better support health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer—or LGBTIQ—Canberrans, as part of the capital of equality strategy.
Another element of the health budget I would like to talk to today is the funding for health services at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce and Clare Holland House. This year more than $220 million will be spent delivering these services. Calvary plays an important role in the provision of quality health services across the ACT public health system and has for the past 40 years. Over that time much has changed at Calvary, with significant investments by the government in recent years to upgrade and modernise the hospital and ensure that we have a truly territory-wide health system.
With the north side of Canberra being one of the fastest growing areas of our city, through this year’s budget there is a major new investment of $40.5 million in Calvary Public Hospital over the next four years. This package will provide funding for 81 new doctors, nurses, administrators and other health professionals at Calvary hospital over two years, including 46 new staff in the new expanded emergency department, once complete.
It will expand Calvary’s capacity to perform elective surgery, with two new theatres being commissioned and 31 new staff to support the theatres as they come online—one theatre to come online in 2019-20 and the second theatre in 2020-21. The funding will ensure more urology services are delivered at Calvary Public Hospital, with an expanded service to meet the growing demand for urology surgery in the ACT, with four new staff.
Clare Holland House will also be expanded with the assistance of funding from the Australian government and the Snow Foundation. Some $6 million will be spent on the expansion, to come online in 2021-22, providing Canberrans with high quality care with dignity at the end of their lives. The expansion will deliver more inpatient beds as well as improved clinical support spaces.
In addition to these important investments, I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge all of our community service partners who are funded through the ACT Health Directorate to provide community-based services across our city. More than 70 different organisations are contracted through grants and service funding agreements to deliver these services, from advocacy and policy all the way through to treatment and prevention programs, with the government providing more than $63 million every year.
Another budget initiative I am pleased to highlight today is the $3 million boost we are making to clinical research in the ACT. The funding will enable research into priority health areas, including cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiology, nursing, mental health, women and children, dementia, palliative care, and population health. It will
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