Page 3650 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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This expansion is a $6.7 million capital works project from the 2018-19 budget, combined with $22 million in the 2019-20 budget to ensure that the expanded capacity is appropriately staffed. This was part of an additional more than $40 million in funding to Calvary over the next four years of the 2019-20 budget for increases in both emergency services and elective surgery capacity.
This is just one part of the major infrastructure investment that is being made by the ACT government. The health of Canberrans will always be a priority for the ACT Labor government, and we will continue to invest in ensuring that our community receives high quality health care when and where Canberrans need it.
MS CODY: Minister, could you update the Assembly on the government’s broader agenda for health infrastructure in Canberra?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Cody for the supplementary. The ACT government has demonstrated record levels of investment in ACT public health services in recent years. The government has invested more than a billion dollars in health infrastructure in the last decade. This has seen investment in the Canberra Hospital, Calvary hospital and in the community and has included new, fit-for-purpose facilities as well as significant upgrades to existing assets.
We have invested in a network of walk-in centres with new centres coming to Weston Creek this year and the inner north next year to join existing centres in Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin.
We are delivering on our commitment for a new health facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans with $12 million in funding being provided to Winnunga Nimmityjah, and it was great to be there at the sod-turning the other week. And of course we have delivered a whole new rehabilitation hospital at the University of Canberra Hospital.
To futureproof our health system we are looking at how we can better deliver health services to Canberrans to ensure that they receive high quality health care when and where they need it through territory-wide health services planning. A key part of this work is Canberra Hospital’s master plan which will help to guide future capital investment and decision-making for the renewal of the campus.
This master plan will include our major investment in the SPIRE project to deliver a new, state-of-the-art emergency surgical and critical-care facility for the hospital and provide high quality, person-centred care in an environment that incorporates the latest advances in technology and models of care to improve health outcomes and operational service efficiency for Canberrans into the future. This represents the biggest investment in healthcare infrastructure since self-government.
MR GUPTA: Minister, could you please outline how the future planning of our health infrastructure takes environmental outcomes into consideration?
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