Page 4344 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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Mr Ramsay: St George Hospital.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: St George Hospital; thank you for your assistance, Attorney-General. However, there is legitimately an issue around how people, under their own steam, access the emergency department, and that is something we are continuing to look into in the design of the project.
MS LEE: Minister, how many of Canberra Hospital’s peer hospitals have primary schools across the road from the emergency department?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Lee for the supplementary question but obviously I will need to take it on notice. I am not entirely sure why the back of a building being across the road from a primary school playground is—
Mrs Dunne: It’s the front door.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: The front door of the building is on Hospital Road; it is right across the road from the main entry to Canberra Hospital. That is the front door of the SPIRE building as it is currently preliminarily designed. The Liberals may want to delay this project, object to the project and raise every concern about this project—the biggest investment in health infrastructure since self-government—but that is their only mode of operation: negative, negative, negative. They have not got a single positive thing to say about the future of our city.
MRS JONES: Minister, what is your plan to ensure that vehicle access to SPIRE 2’s ED will not present any safety risk for school students and the local community?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will just read from the letter that I have written to the Garran residents association that was sent yesterday evening, although I understand it had to be redirected this morning to a different email address:
The ACT Government is mindful of traffic pressures within the precinct and is keen to work with the community, including Garran Primary School and local residents, to address these as part of the broader planning process. Importantly, we understand that traffic pressures already exist in the area, particularly during school drop-off and pick-up times.
The current facilities at the north-eastern part of the Canberra Hospital campus already generate traffic flow from Gilmore Cres and Palmer Street throughout the day, including a short-stay car park that is almost always full. These uses will be relocated with the development of the SPIRE project and traffic flow will therefore be directed to other parts of the Canberra Hospital campus, which are less likely to be accessed from Gilmore Crescent. Our current expectation is that relocation of those facilities will offset other traffic movements associated with the SPIRE project.
In order to gain a better understanding of traffic movements associated with the SPIRE project and related traffic matters, traffic analysis work is currently underway. This will be shared with the community at the earliest opportunity
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