Page 148 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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off our acute-care hospital service delivery sector and allow them to focus on their tertiary treatment obligations and needs and allow subacute and rehabilitation services to be delivered in a beautiful, purpose-built setting that leverages the partnership we have with the University of Canberra, not only ensuring growth in the development of capacity for our public hospital services but also seeing growth in development of one of our most important tertiary education institutions, the University of Canberra.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, can you please further outline why the government is building the new University of Canberra public hospital?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for her supplementary. Rehabilitation and aged care are growing areas of demand in our city and that is why we need to provide this purpose-built subacute hospital facility. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recognises that we need to provide specialised multidisciplinary care settings where the primary need for care is the optimisation of the patient’s functioning and quality of life. So whether it is rehab, palliative care, geriatric evaluation and management or psycho geriatric care, the University of Canberra public hospital will provide for a number of these areas of demand.
As our population ages, we know that the need for acute care level for people increases. The number of episodes of care increases as we age. We need to ensure that we have a purpose-built subacute facility that meets that need and that demand. I am delighted to see this project up and under construction now because it is vitally important for the quality and future of healthcare provision in our city.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Burch.
MS BURCH: Can the minister explain the sorts of services that will be offered at the new University of Canberra public hospital and how the patients will be able to access those services?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Burch for the supplementary. I can certainly provide some further detail in relation to those matters. In regard to rehabilitation treatment, the hospital will provide for inpatient and day services as well as a hydrotherapy pool service. It will be a teaching facility as well, and that is critically important for the care of people who need subacute care in our city.
It will run tailored multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs. The types of conditions that rehab will be offered for include stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. It will also be providing rehabilitation treatment for people recovering from an amputation or surgery, for trauma recovery and de-conditioning and disability that is associated with an illness. These are critically important services that impact directly on the quality of life of so many people in our community. Rehabilitation will also be offered for conditions associated with ageing such as cognitive impairment, hip and other fractures and also geriatric conditions. These are critically important services.
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