Page 116 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video


Furthermore, I congratulate West Belconnen Health Co-op’s CEO, David Bailey, who in October won the national practice management award for excellence in chronic disease management from the National Australian Association for Practice Managers. The award recognised the innovative and popular lifestyle modification program that included a highly skilled nurse practitioner to further build expertise of clinical staff and extend the range of health services the co-op can provide.

Last financial year the number of co-op sites doubled from two to four, with the opening of clinics in aged-care facilities at Page in March this year and Kangara Waters in April. The co-op has announced the establishment of two new sites in Belconnen, at Kippax and Evatt. In announcing the new clinics, co-op chair Michael Pilbrow said:

The Co-op is keen to support suburbs where there is a shortage of low cost local doctors, and we greatly value our new partnership with the Bendigo Bank which is helping us open in two areas of need, Kippax and Evatt.

With assistance from Bendigo Bank and the ACT Government, a new Co-op will be established on the West Belconnen model in Tuggeranong in Chisholm.

National attention has also been drawn to the co-op. In October this year the west Belconnen co-op presentation at the International Year of Cooperatives conference in Port Macquarie attracted particular interest from regional areas suffering from a lack of health services. The west Belconnen co-op is run by dedicated, talented staff and a committed, voluntary board of directors who are giving back to the community. The co-op’s board is elected by members at the co-op annual general meeting, which is this Wednesday night. The members on the board represent the great collective spirit in west Belconnen in looking for opportunities to do the best for their community.

Health Directorate—accreditation

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (5.03): I speak tonight about the Health Directorate and the accreditation process that they have just been going through in the week of 12 to 16 November. This is a process that all hospitals go through with the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards; experienced surveyors come from a whole range of other clinical backgrounds and a whole range of different hospitals across Australia, and indeed there was one clinician from Hong Kong in the group of surveyors that came and assessed Canberra Hospital.

They spend a week with the organisation and they meet with staff right across the organisation. They visit the sites, not just the hospital. They went out to the jail, they go to community health centres, they go to speak with staff who provide services within homes and they also speak to consumers, to general practitioners and to volunteers that work at the hospital. I attended the feedback session at the end of that week. What the surveyors do is come and present on their initial findings. It then goes away for report writing. We will not get the report of the accreditation process for a couple of months, but I just wanted to put on the record what we have seen with this accreditation survey, because in this place, particularly from those opposite, we hear a lot of talking down of the health system here.


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video