Page 641 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020
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That day I not only got to be at the official opening of Canberra’s newest walk-in centre, in fabulous Weston Creek; I also got to be its very first patient. I reckon that is pretty grouse. The treatment was amazing. The only thing that is possibly regrettable is not getting photos of me collapsing and getting treated, because I am sure our dear friends in the media would have loved to see them. I support the nurse-led walk-in-centres and I too cannot wait to see more of them open across Canberra.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (3.47): In this matter of public importance today I am very pleased to have an opportunity to reflect on the value of the nurse-led walk-in centres. Certainly the Greens recognise the valuable role that they play in the ACT healthcare system. The Labor-Greens government will fulfil its parliamentary agreement commitment to deliver an additional three nurse-led walk-in-centres in the course of this parliamentary term.
In this term we have delivered the Tuggeranong and Weston Creek walk-in-centres. The fifth centre, located in Dickson, will be completed later this year. I am particularly pleased to see this centre come online. Not only is it in my electorate of Kurrajong but I know that this will be an extremely valuable addition to the inner north community and the people who live in that area. It will be very convenient. The location for it is great, right there at the Dickson shops. I think this will be a very well utilised service in the heart of the inner north.
It is clear that the establishment of the nurse-led walk-in-centres has added a significant resource to our healthcare landscape. The evidence of the success of nurse-led walk-in centres is strong, particularly as the community gain greater awareness of their availability and more are added to the ACT’s healthcare services.
The nurse-led walk-in-centres are led by highly skilled, advanced practice nurses and nurse practitioners. The nurse practitioners have the ability to prescribe. Being able to see a health professional to treat an infection or other minor illness in this setting, which is free, is an extremely valuable service to the residents of Canberra. The scope of work—and Ms Cheyne did a good job of outlining this before—is quite broad, and very many services are available. I think people probably are pleasantly surprised, when they go, to discover how broad the spectrum of available services is.
The nurse-led walk-in-centres provide free and efficient access to treatment and health advice for one-off, minor injuries and illness. Should a patient require urgent attention for serious injury or illness, they can of course be directed to emergency departments if the scope is not within that of the nurses on site. 84.6 per cent of presentations between July and September 2019 were fully treated at the walk-in-centres. Over this period there were 17,481 presentations to the walk-in-centres across the territory. This is up 3.4 per cent for the July to September quarter, compared to the previous quarter of April to June 2019.
Wait times came up during the contribution today by Mrs Dunne—and I think the minister has done a reasonably good job of covering that. What I think is worth noting is that, across all the walk-in centres, presentations increased in the most recent reporting period and wait times reduced. I think this highlights the effectiveness of the
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