Page 777 - Week 02 - Thursday, 10 March 2011
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With these five principles in mind, we have developed five options for the community to consider to best provide for public hospital services right across Canberra and the region as a whole well into the future. The five options are outlined in those papers I tabled. They include building additional capacity across both Canberra and Calvary public hospitals, with this option requiring the refurbishment of both sites. Option 2 is to build a super hospital on the Canberra Hospital site. Option 3 is to add some of the capacity required to the Canberra Hospital with the remainder forming a new north side acute public hospital. Option 4 is to provide a fully networked public hospital system linking the Canberra Hospital, Calvary Public Hospital and a new north side hospital, with Calvary taking on the role of the ACT’s premier subacute facility with acute general hospital services for north Canberra to be provided at a new north side hospital. Option 5 is the same as option 4 with the roles of Calvary and the proposed new north side facility reversed, with Calvary providing acute services and the new north side hospital meeting the community’s subacute needs.
We did consider a sixth option of building all of the additional capacity at Calvary Public Hospital. However, that would mean that Calvary would require significant redevelopment to meet the needs of a 700-bed hospital. This is not feasible at a time when we have committed considerable resources to rebuild Canberra Hospital. As such, the necessary delays in refurbishment of Calvary would mean that the hospital would not be ready to meet the increasing demand for inpatient services for our community.
The discussion paper I released at the end of February provides a full analysis of each of the five options. In addition to that paper, I also released a Treasury analysis of the options. The Treasury analysis provides a thorough assessment of all the options. The analysis scores each option based on a number of measures that are based on the principles that I outlined earlier. The Treasury analysis does note the benefit of providing a fully networked and specialised public hospital system in the ACT, and it also highlights the different costs for each option, including recurrent and capital.
These two papers provide members and the community with a comprehensive set of information about the needs of our community into the future and provide the basis for a considered response about which will best meet our needs in fiscally responsible way.
The discussion will continue over the next six weeks with submissions welcome up to 14 April. The government will collate all the responses and make a final decision about how we best meet the public hospital needs for the whole of the ACT and region within a framework that ensures our community has access to safe, integrated and efficient hospital care. We will also look to the report of the Standing Committee on Health, Community and Social Services, which is due to be tabled at the end of March, in assisting the government in its final decision making.
I look forward to the community’s response to the discussion paper, as well as any thoughts and ideas that members may have. As a government, we constantly seek public input into major policy decisions. Talking with the community ensures that we understand their wishes, and we value the ideas and thoughts of the people we serve.
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