Page 291 - Week 01 - Thursday, 29 November 2012
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MS GALLAGHER: I do not know, again, that that is a fair comparison. One, the review in terms of commissioning the independent advice, which would come at a cost, has not started. So I cannot give you a figure. As to whether you could equate that to a capital cost of the construction of another birth suite and then the recurrent cost of the nurses and doctors that go along with that, I could certainly say that the review will come nowhere near the operations of additional birth suites.
The birth suites once stage 2 is complete, and the maternity services move back into the stage 2 of the building, will provide the level of birth coverage that will be provided at the Canberra Hospital for years to come. Additional capacity, if it is required, will happen on the north side of Canberra at Calvary Public Hospital and we have the full support of the Little Company of Mary Health Care to deliver that additional capacity.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Why will you not conduct an independent review into the fiasco at the Centenary hospital?
MS GALLAGHER: There is no fiasco at the women’s and children’s hospital. We have just had the surveyors through, and they have commented on the building, which includes more than the maternity services. It includes a state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care service and it includes Ronald McDonald House—the first Ronald McDonald House anywhere in Australia to actually be accommodated within a women’s and children’s hospital. It is state of the art, and the comment back from them was that it is simply stunning and that they have not seen facilities like this in a public hospital. And for you lot to continue to talk it down and try to demean it is outrageous. It is what we expect from you. Mr Hanson could not even be bothered to come to the opening. The shadow minister for health could not even find it in himself to come and see what has been achieved. And yes, there are issues that need to be addressed. I have never said there are not, right across the health system.
Mr Seselja: It is falling apart.
MS GALLAGHER: It is not falling apart, Mr Seselja—with a smile on your face. How excited you are to say that—the thought that that might be falling apart, and then they could come in here and talk down the women’s and children’s hospital. Oh, what a great opportunity that is for the Liberal Party! Serious work goes on at the women’s and children’s. I am proud of it. I am the one that decided to build a women’s and children’s hospital in this city. I am the one that got the money for it. I am the one that has delivered the project, and women and children, babies, the neonates that come from outside Canberra, that come and have their lives saved every single day in that hospital—
Mr Hanson: Twenty million.
MS GALLAGHER: Every single day that happens, Mr Hanson, in superb facilities where parents can sit by their triplets and their twins, as their lives are saved, as
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