Page 3783 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 28 October 2015
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patients who have a length of stay in the ED of less than four hours. Of course, when people come to the ED, more people require inpatient beds. In 2014-15 we provided over 344,000 bed days of care to almost 100,000 inpatients, an increase of four per cent on the number provided in the previous 12 months.
Meeting this demand is possible only through the continued investment of the government in relation to bed numbers and other capital works. At the end of 2014-15 there were 1,068 public hospital beds in our hospital system compared to just 670 when the Liberals were last in government. This is a 60 per cent increase in the total number of beds that are used every day to provide the necessary care and treatment to the people of the ACT and our surrounding region.
On top of this, the government has invested more than $900 million in the most significant investment in Canberra’s capital physical health care structure through our health infrastructure program. We are completing many significant and large-scale projects, including, of course, the Canberra Region Cancer Centre; three community health centres in Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin; three walk-in centres in Belconnen, Tuggeranong and the Canberra Hospital; a mental health assessment unit; an adult mental health unit; the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children; Duffy House, home away from home accommodation for regional patients and their carers when they are receiving cancer treatment at the Canberra Hospital; a large extension to the emergency department intensive care unit involving a three-storey extension to building 12 at the Canberra Hospital; new operating theatres for Calvary and the Canberra Hospital; a PET ICT scanner, providing a new scanning capability not previously available in the ACT, with patients previously referred to Sydney or Melbourne for use of this technology; and new car parking infrastructure to help meet growth in demand.
Most recently, we have seen the complete demolition and rebuild of building 15 at the Canberra Hospital. This has been rebuilt into a dedicated outpatient facility that houses upgraded clinical spaces in a purpose-built environment. The layout of services and staff spaces in the building is unified with national and international healthcare practice to create more efficient service.
There are other projects that the government is investing in which are yet to be complete, including the fantastic Ngunnawal bush healing farm; the University of Canberra public hospital; the secure mental health unit; and the expansion of our emergency department, a $23 million investment to increase the number of available beds in the ED by around 30 per cent. As a result of this expansion of the ED, there will be an extra 1,000 square metres of floor area; three more ambulance bays; 21 additional treatment spaces, including up to nine more acute beds for patients with severe conditions; three more beds or cubicles for less severe conditions; three more beds in the emergency medicine unit; and two designated paediatric consulting rooms. There will also be two more resuscitation bays and a new mental health short-stay unit.
The health infrastructure program brings healthcare services closer to where people live. It is about moving key front-line services out of the major health campuses into local facilities wherever possible. It is about healthcare workers who will provide care at specific points in the patient’s journey and it is about using information technology
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