Page 1644 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2023
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activity in ACT public hospitals is forecast to increase from 68,992 to 103,693 episodes between 2021 and 2041, an average annual increase of 2.1 per cent, while overnight stays are projected to rise from 55,294 to 76,061 episodes, which is an average annual increase of 1.6 per cent.
A third of the increase in acute and subacute inpatient episodes will be driven by population increase, from 432,266 in 2021 to 539,356 in 2041, an average annual increase of 1.1 per cent. The remainder will be driven by the ageing population, as well as an increase in utilisation. The population in the north-side statistical areas is projected to increase from 257,378 in 2021 to 377,592 in 2041, compared to the south-side statistical areas, where the population is forecast to decrease from 174,888 in 2021 to 161,764 in 2041.
Clearly, there is an increasing need to fund adequate hospital services for Canberra, something that the current Labor-Greens government has neglected because of its commitment to extend the tram from Civic to Woden at a cost of over $3 billion. With this government’s sorry history of only partial delivery on its health infrastructure funding promises, there is no certainty that it can deliver a new north-side hospital on time. Planning is ongoing, and construction is not scheduled to commence until mid-decade, after the next election. So, come the next territory election, the Barr-Rattenbury government will again be asking electors to just trust them when it comes to building health infrastructure. But this trust has been betrayed again and again, no matter the number of hard-hat and hi-vis announcements that this minister fronts.
There was another yesterday, announcing that electricity would be used rather than gas to heat the Canberra Hospital expansion. We learned that, for some extra cost, this will probably save on running costs in the long-term and it will be better for the environment and will probably be better for the budget in the long-term. The Canberra Hospital expansion was announced back in 2011 and is still not complete. It was meant to be finished in 2021. It is also too small.
Prior to the 2012 ACT election, the ACT Labor government promised an $800 million expansion of the Canberra Hospital, and $41 million was appropriated in the 2011-12 budget to start this redevelopment. But following the 2012 election, $41 million was ripped out of the budget in 2013, and the remaining $759 million plan to build the hospital was cancelled. Instead, ACT Labor allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to build a tram.
The first stage of rebuilding the Canberra Hospital was costed by ACT Health at $375 million. This was the exact amount of money that was allocated in the ACT budget to fund the first down payment on the tram in 2018. Wowsers!This Labor-Greens government expects us to believe that it will start to build a new $1 billion north-side public hospital after the next election—trust them—despite their spend of $3 billion on extending a tram to Woden. Given the dubious benefits and inevitable fallout from the government’s hostile takeover of the Calvary Public Hospital site and its operations, not to mention the uncertainty of legal action, you have a recipe for a continuing fiasco. Incidentally, the fifth series of Utopia starts tomorrow night, if you are wondering; it looks as if it has hit Canberra a little earlier.
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