Page 4530 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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required to pay for the project. Nevertheless, we are getting on with the planning work for this project and intend to deliver it in a timely way.
The Centenary Hospital for Women and Children has become a key part of the territory’s health system. To ensure that it can continue to meet increasing demand, a $50 million expansion will increase the capacity of the hospital and bolster the range of services it can offer, including services for women, adolescents, children and newborn babies with high care needs.
The Centenary Hospital for Women and Children expansion project will help meet increasing demand for obstetric, gynaecological, paediatric, adolescent and neonatal health care services across the territory and surrounding region. It will also provide new adolescent mental health services, including an inpatient unit and a day service.
Importantly, the project will utilise the expansion capacity built into the Centenary hospital during its original design and construction, which included a slab floor plate to enable an extra floor to be added as the need arose. Preliminary sketch designs are expected to be completed in coming weeks, with early works to progress the paediatric high care ward refurbishment having commenced in mid-November. The main construction works for the project are expected to commence in mid-2020, with completion due in mid-2022.
Canberra’s nurse-led walk-in centres have been a fantastic innovation and an ACT Labor government initiative we can be proud of. These facilities provide an important service for Canberrans requiring non-acute care, so they can access timely, free treatment for minor injuries and illness. In addition to the walk-in centres we have delivered in Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin, work is underway on two more centres. The Weston Creek centre is expected to open by the end of this year, with the inner north centre to open next year.
Canberra Health Services also operates a network of community health centres in Belconnen, Phillip, Gungahlin, Dickson, Civic, and Tuggeranong. These health centres will continue to provide important services such as dental, nutrition, rehabilitation, drug and alcohol, and mother and baby health.
The ACT government has also given a $12 million grant to Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services for the construction of a new community health facility, which Winnunga will own. Work began on this important project in September this year. This new facility, which fulfils a 2016 election commitment, will enable Winnunga to deliver even better services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans in a way that is underpinned by self-determination and Aboriginal community control.
We also understand the growing areas of need across Canberra’s health services. We are stepping up our investment in drug and alcohol services to help tackle drug dependence and see more people get the support they need. As part of this, the ACT Health Directorate is currently in discussions with Winnunga on the development of and consultation on a comprehensive model of care for a new culturally appropriate residential facility supporting drug and alcohol rehabilitation for
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