Page 2753 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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reality in the ACT, and this budget measure affirms the ACT’s commitment to preventing harms due to addiction and the abuse or misuse of pharmaceuticals.
The initiatives I have outlined today are all part of creating a healthy future for Canberrans and building on a strong public health system that provides high quality care. Fundamental to delivering this, though, is ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the people who work across the system in our hospitals and health facilities to provide the care our community relies on.
It is something the government is acutely aware of and committed to improving, with significant work over the past 12 months in the health portfolio through the transition to two new health organisations, the independent review into workplace culture within ACT public health services, and the establishment of the new clinical leadership forum, work that is now backed by a substantial investment in this year’s budget to implement the recommendations of the independent review into workplace culture and the nurses and midwives towards a safer culture strategy over the next three years. I will continue to update the Assembly and community on this critically important work as it progresses.
Before concluding, I want to take the opportunity to both acknowledge the work of my predecessor and briefly reflect on my first few weeks as health minister. Former Minister Fitzharris faced some significant challenges and complex issues during her tenure as health minister. She did not shy away from tough decisions and she left the portfolio with a clear way forward. I thank her for the work she did on behalf of all Canberrans.
In some ways it is easy to criticise the health portfolio. There is no perfect health system anywhere in the country or, indeed, the world, and there are always things that can be criticised. But Minister Fitzharris did an incredible job in moving the portfolio forward. I feel I have come into the portfolio with a very clear path for continuing improvement in what is already a high quality health system in which Canberrans have high levels of confidence.
Over the last few weeks since taking on the portfolio I have spent a bit of time out and about in our hospitals and health services, meeting staff and seeing firsthand how our health services work. I have already learned a lot. I acknowledge, Mrs Dunne, that I probably have a lot more to learn, as we all do in a very large and complex system.
I have been to the Canberra Hospital intensive care unit and met staff at the front line of acute care. I have celebrated the University of Canberra Hospital’s first birthday and the new approach to rehabilitation, recovery and mental health support that is now offered to not only our community but the entire Canberra region. We too easily forget that we opened a new hospital in Canberra last year, a significant addition to our public health system and one that everyone I speak to who has used the services at the University of Canberra Hospital absolutely raves about. It is a very important contribution to a strong public health system.
I attended the first meeting of the new clinical leadership forum established to better engage clinicians in policy, planning and delivering the cultural change we know we
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