Page 3526 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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early diagnosis of influenza, and commencement of additional recruitment to address seasonal demand. A targeted external communication strategy also commenced in June to promote the utilisation of walk-in centres and to help Canberrans understand the difference between a cold and flu.
As Mrs Dunne mentioned, 16 winter beds at Canberra Hospital opened on 11 July, and 12 additional beds were progressively opened at the University of Canberra Hospital in the period since June, to provide additional capacity across the system. That goes to the point that Mrs Dunne referred to in quoting the AMA, noting that it is in fact a whole hospital capacity issue in terms of how patients flow through emergency departments.
The all-care discharge unit was also established as a separate unit with a broader model of care than the current discharge lounge, enabling non-ambulant patients to access the discharge lounge. It is an important element of the timely care strategy that is being implemented across Canberra Health Services and Canberra Hospital to improve patient flow and ensure that valuable hospital beds are being used as efficiently as possible.
The timely care strategy, which Mrs Dunne will get around to being briefed on in October, I understand, after I offered a briefing in my first sitting week as minister, contains a number of initiatives, including expansion of the daily multidisciplinary team, ward huddles in more ward areas, the introduction of referral pathways for simple fractures and minor plastic surgery injuries in the emergency department, increasing CHS awareness of the services provided by hospital in the home to facilitate early discharge and treatment of patients, and amending CHS policies which potentially delay patient care and extend the length of stay in hospital, and other matters.
Mrs Dunne talked about whether or not it is possible to bring forward responses when a flu season starts earlier than it has in the last 10 years. I do need to make the point that the commencement of both the additional beds at Canberra Hospital and the all-care discharge unit were aligned to the completion of critical infrastructure works across the campus. The opening of new beds and services in a large and complex organisation like Canberra Hospital requires considerable planning.
Work to develop the 2019 winter management plan commenced in early 2019, but opening new beds requires both staff and physical facilities, and it is important to recognise that staff in hospitals work on rosters which need to be planned in advance; and, similarly, infrastructure works in a hospital need to be carefully planned and implemented. It does take time to open new beds and it does take planning to open new beds. I want to commend Canberra Health Services on the way that it has managed this very demanding winter season. In fact, performance has actually been quite stable between the previous quarter and the last quarter, in an environment of significantly increased demand pressure.
Turning to the question of investment, my amendment to the motion notes that the ACT government has already made considerable investments in health infrastructure and will continue to do so. We have demonstrated record levels of investment in
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