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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (30 March) . . Page.. 1203 ..

Canberra Hospital - Refurbishment of Psychiatric Unit

(Question No. 227)

Mr Wood asked the Minister for Health and Community Care, upon notice, on 29 February 2000:

In relation to the refurbishment of the psychiatric unit at the Canberra Hospital:

(1) When will the refurbishment be completed.

(2) What is the reason for the delay.

(3) Is the current facility of a suitable standard and are all occupational health and

safety requirements being met.

(4) What is the cost of the work.

Mr Moore: The answer to the member's question is:

(1) Construction work on the Acute Psychiatric Unit has commenced with a scheduled completion date of November 2000.

(2) The project was placed on hold for a short period due to a shortfall in funding. In order to accommodate the additional funding for this most important project I decided to defer the refurbishment of the Belconnen Health Centre to allow the project to be accommodated within the overall Health allocation of capital works funding, and for the project to be completed as designed.

(3) The Psychiatric Unit is currently temporarily located on level 7 of Building 1. Considerable work was invested in level 7 to ensure that the needs of the unit were appropriately satisfied. A number of shortcomings were identified with level 7 shortly after it was occupied. A team including Unit staff, OH&S representatives, Risk Management staff and Facilities personnel investigated those shortcomings and implemented remedial action. The Unit is now operating in a functional and safe manner on level 7.

The refurbishment of the Acute Psychiatric Unit will deliver a facility which meets the applicable building codes and, importantly, will meet the requirements of the National Mental Health Strategy.

(4) The total project budget is now $2.7M. This includes $0.2M in relocation costs to temporarily locate psychiatric patients on level 7 of Building 1 at the hospital while the refurbishment of the psychiatric unit proceeds.

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