Page 1919 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 June 2021
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The health infrastructure that we deliver will be places where Canberrans spend some of the happiest and some of the hardest times of their lives, and good infrastructure design enables the best treatment and care. Over the last decade we have invested more than $1 billion in health infrastructure, and the ACT government is continuing our significant investments in health for years to come.
Right now, on the Canberra Hospital campus, we are investing more than $180 million in health infrastructure improvements, including: expansion of the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children; construction of new wards to deliver better inpatient care at Canberra Hospital, including cancer wards, the second of which recently opened, and a new mental health ward; and outpatient services such as the adolescent mental health day unit and the new Canberra Sexual Health Centre in the new building 8.
We are creating more teaching and training facilities for our health workers to continue to learn and innovate, including a neonatology family support teaching and education space, and a surgical training centre opening in early July to advance the upskilling of our staff in key and complex procedures such as resuscitation, trauma and intensive care. That will also be in the new building 8, which is part of the early works associated with the Canberra Hospital expansion.
We are investing in care closer to home in the Canberra community, with new infrastructure such as the expanded Weston Creek walk-in centre to include an imaging service, which means Canberrans can access crucial imaging services without having to go to a hospital campus; the delivery of a new hydrotherapy pool in Canberra’s south; and our commitment to deliver five new walk-in health centres across the Canberra region to make sure that everyone can access the excellent treatment and care led by Canberra’s nurses in both immediate care and appointment-based services. That will be co-designed with those local communities to meet the needs of the diverse communities in which those centres will be established—in south Tuggeranong, in your own electorate of Brindabella, Mr Assistant Speaker; in the inner south, in my electorate; in west Belconnen; in north Gungahlin; and in Molonglo, where we will be establishing the Coombs walk-in health centre, which has been somewhat delayed, but it remains an absolute commitment from the ACT government.
We are committed to establishing an elective surgery centre at the University of Canberra campus. This will expand on and sit alongside the existing specialist rehabilitation services provided at the University of Canberra Hospital. The University of Canberra Hospital is a prime example of health infrastructure designed in partnership with consumers that is making a real difference for the Canberra community.
The ACT government is making the biggest health infrastructure investment since self-government with the Canberra Hospital expansion, at a value of just over $624 million. The critical services building will enhance how we deliver emergency, surgical and intensive care services in the ACT.
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