Page 1582 - Week 05 - Thursday, 15 May 2014
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MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Berry for the question and for her interest in Calvary hospital, the major hospital in her electorate of Ginninderra. Yesterday I did visit Calvary hospital, along with the chair of the Little Company of Mary Health Care board, the Hon John Watkins. We were able to inspect the new eight-bed rapid assessment unit, also known as the RAPU, and the 12-bed medical assessment planning unit, known as the MAPU, and a four-bed stroke unit. The ACT community provided $3 million for the capital works for these three important services. We also provided the recurrent funding for the staffing and support for these beds.
It was great to have a look at them. The rapid assessment and planning unit and the medical assessment and planning unit allow the speedy transfer and admission of patients from the emergency department into these short-stay wards, where it is hoped that they are assessed and discharged within a 24-hour to 48-hour period. It is a very interesting model, with a multidisciplinary team which assesses the patient once they are admitted. They have very clear operational guidelines about how those units are to be run.
The Calvary stroke unit provides a similar model, ensuring that patients are admitted very quickly into a specialised stroke unit. Members would know that there is a stroke unit at the Canberra Hospital, but this means that for patients presenting on the north side of Canberra, for the first time in our short history as a city, we now are running two stroke units across the city.
It is interesting when you look at the statistics to see that 300 people present every year to Calvary hospital with suspected stroke. On the evening before we visited, three people had presented with stroke to the emergency department. Indeed, there was another admission while we were there yesterday morning. So there is no doubt that the need is there. It means that people can get access to that very highly specialised fast treatment quickly without having to transfer to Canberra Hospital or be cared for in a non-specialised unit.
It was great to see. I am very pleased that we have been able to deliver these extra beds. They will go to assisting the hospital to meet some of the performance requirements that they have in terms of the emergency department but also help them with their patient flow through the hospital.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, what was the feedback from patients that you met during the visit to Calvary hospital about their medical treatment?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Berry for the supplementary. Work started on the RAPU and the MAPU in late February, and the stroke unit started only two days before these were operational areas of the hospital. So we were able to meet with patients who had agreed to us tromping into their rooms. It was really very good to meet the people. They were very generous with discussing their experience of being admitted through those units.
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